Ch 15 Blood and Bones

*content warning, this is very gory, though I don’t think it is that much, but I still left a warning here...*

From afar, Leon could smell it, something metallic that made him move carefully, then Leon pointed his flashlight at the rabbit pen and froze.

His stomach lurched as he took in the scene, blood covered the entire pen, with chunks of mushy flesh scattered everywhere.

But strangely, the pelts were still intact. It looked like something had skinned the white rabbits with surgical precision, then neatly stacked the small white furs to one side.

Bones and meat were strewn about in a grotesque display. Then Leon spotted something that made his blood run cold, one small rabbit was still being gutted. Its internal organs had been removed and scattered nearby.

It twitched weakly until the movement finally stopped. What was more unsettling was that the rabbit had been completely skinned! The fur had already been cut neatly and thrown to the side.

“F*cking hell! Who did this! F*CK!” Leon was trembling, his hand gripping the stun baton tighter. Whoever did this wasn't just sick, they were armed.

He looked around nervously. Whoever did this might still be here.

“Fuck! I need to call the police! Nova, keep looking through the CCTV! Remind me if you spot something!” Leon started to panic, but Nova calmed him down.

“Sir, please calm down. We can't call the police yet, it would expose too many secrets. I've already scanned the area with our drone. No unfamiliar heat signatures detected. The perpetrator has left the scene. We need to clean this up first.

Hearing Nova's voice, Leon calmed down slightly, just a tiny bit. He still looked around, scared that the perpetrator might still be there.

“Are you sure? What if he's hiding in the orphanage? No! Send the drones to check on the kids! I don't want anything bad to happen!” Leon was still thinking about the kids in this situation because they seemed weak and vulnerable, making them easy targets.

“Yes sir, already on it.” Nova didn't argue and immediately sent several more drones to the kids' dorms.

Soon, the drones were heading toward the dormitories, not even trying to stay hidden. Leon didn't have his 3D tablet with him, so he could only rely on Nova's voice updates.

“Sir, I've scanned the entire orphanage again. All heat signatures match current orphanage residents, no outsiders have been detected. Also, one of our CCTV cameras managed to capture the perpetrator walking away at 3:15 AM, right before all our signals came back online.” Nova's report made Leon frown even deeper.

“This... Killing all these rabbits brutally, skinning them alive and making this mess takes time. How did I not hear anything?!” Leon felt threatened right away.

“Wait... yesterday, he was just scouting, maybe he saw our CCTV cameras, but somehow he knew about our hidden drones too?” Leon came to a realization.

“And he timed it perfectly, started right when our system crashed at 3 AM and finished right when it came back online! How the hell did he know about that?” Leon's back was already wet with cold sweat

Since Nova hadn't found anything else, Leon did what any normal person would do, call the police.

But first, Leon recalled all his drones, storing them in his inventory. He even hid his 3D tablet. Only the regular CCTV remained. Unfortunately, only one camera had captured the perpetrator's silhouette. There was no footage of the actual crime.

Without thinking any longer, Leon called the police.

“Hello, 911? I want to report a crime! Someone trespassed on our property and brutally killed our rabbits, even skinned them alive!” Leon tried to explain everything as clearly as possible.

“Yes, I detected movement yesterday, but I didn't know that guy was this sick! I thought someone was just wandering around!” As Leon continued his story, trying to stay calm, a patrol car was already heading his way.

The operator's voice came through the phone “Sir, please calm down. Our officers are already nearby, you should see them soon. If it's not too dangerous, please come out and guide us.”

Hearing this, Leon could only steel himself to stay at the gate. It wasn't until he saw a patrol car moving slowly toward his location that he calmed down a bit.

The police didn't turn on their sirens, just the flashing blue and red lights. Leon knew this wasn't a murder scene, and he could see the officers looked displeased.

When they stepped out of the car, they looked rather annoyed as they sipped their coffee, dark bags under their eyes.. Well, It was 3.30 AM, but still...

“Sir, we've already heard the report. Can we see the scene and possibly review the recording?” one of the officers said.

Quickly nodding, he guided them to the rabbit pen. The officers frowned at the carnage and began taking pictures.

While they were doing so, Leon could see Walter slowly making his way over, probably woken by the commotion. “What happened? Why are the police here?” Walter asked Leon, confused.

Leon could only describe the scene once again. This made Walter frown.

“This is troublesome....” Walter looked at the officer who had already finished taking pictures and was walking toward them.

“Sir, we're already done. You can bury these animal carcasses right away” the officer said and walked away.

Leon nodded, then said, “I will show…” But as he looked up, he realized the officers were already walking back to their car!

“Hey! Didn't you say you needed the recording? Wait!” Leon shouted loudly while chasing them.

“Let them go... it's not worth it,” Walter quickly stopped Leon.

“But this is a possible psycho! Who the f*ck does this if they have a right mind!” Leon wanted to chase the officers, but they were already gone, not even bothering to close the gate.

“D*mn it! What's wrong with them?” Leon didn't know what to say. The police just left like that?

Walter could only laugh and calm Leon down. “Calm down first. I'll try to contact someone. I hope nothing goes wrong…” Walter looked worried.

“Now help me bury these poor creatures. If the kids see them like this, I can't bear it…” Walter then took out a shovel and dug a pit.

Sighing heavily, Leon helped Walter bury the carnage. As he tossed bloodied bones into the hole, something caught his eye, a larger piece that seemed to be a leg bone with meat still clinging to it.

“This... why does it look like a bite mark??” Leon squinted his eyes and shined his flashlight on it. Yes, he could clearly see bite marks!

"F*CK!" Leon was now so sure that whoever did this wasn't right in their head! Who eats raw rabbits like this!?

“D*mn! It's like a starving ghost appeared here and ate everything alive!”As Leon said this, he didn't notice Walter flinch at the mention of a ghost.

But Leon was too genuinely scared to notice. He couldn't just shoot that fucker, right? If he did that, he'd be the next one in trouble.

Despite his cursing, Leon kept working. He kept helping Walter move the carcasses and dump them into the hole, then bury them all.

Leon just hoped the children wouldn't notice anything was wrong. “Sigh... let's just say the rabbits got eaten by a dog.”

“Good idea.” Walter nodded, then looked left and right.

“Leon, be careful. I hope nothing else happens, but try not to go anywhere alone. This... I have a really bad feeling about this. You should patrol the kids' dorms more.” Walter then left as he needed to sleep.

Leon himself packed up the pen and just dumped it all into his inventory.

After finishing, he walked back to his room and spoke with Nova. “Hey Nova, are there really no other options? Like a stun gun? I need something now!”

“Of course, sir, but I did a rough review. Based on the target's movement patterns, that guy has excellent reaction speed, seeing how he could spot our hidden drone and quickly disappear from view, knowing we could still access the footage.”

“and he is fast and precise. I'll show you the footage,” Nova said as the TV screen displayed the recordings.

Leon could see a silhouette crouching, hiding behind the slide and swings to make sure his drone wouldn't capture its figure.

The figure vanished in only three seconds! Another screen showed a different angle, and like the first, the figure skillfully used trees and buildings for cover.

This made Leon's frown deepen. “This is bad. He is professional! I can't even get good footage!”

“I think they already knew, sir. I noticed they examined our CCTV positions, and they quickly determined our footage wouldn't be useful.” Nova tried to explain why the officers didn't really want to look at the footage.

"Still... couldn't they have been more professional? At least listened to me first and reviewed the footage with me to put me at ease... And maybe told me they'd increase patrols or something!" Leon nearly screamed again.

But deep down, Leon knew he couldn't simply place all his hope in the police. He scrolled through his game panel again, hoping to find something useful against fast enemies.

“Haah... nothing useful, huh?” He paused, then remembered. “Wait, I have money now! Maybe I can hire private security or…” He trailed off with another sigh. “I don't know anymore. I need to call the police about increasing patrols around the orphanage for the next few days.”

Leon felt completely overwhelmed. On one hand, he didn't know if that psycho would return tomorrow or had already disappeared, but he couldn't just let it go like that! He needed to prepare for the worst, if that psycho came back, he needed protection.