Will stood on the urban streets of Sewertin feeling a little uneasy. He didn’t like the city. It was loud and held too many animals. Not exactly an ideal location for an abduction, but here he was. He decided to pay the victim’s boyfriend a visit.
A mouse named Terry opened the door a crack. “Yeah?”
“My name is Will Graham with the Prey FBI. I wanted to ask you a few questions about Milly?” He showed the mouse his badge.
Terry led him to the kitchen table and finished eating his breakfast while Will sat down. Terry didn’t look much younger than him, twenty, twenty-two maybe?
“You were with her the day she disappeared, is that right?” Will asked.
“She didn’t disappear, she was taken!”
“How do you know?” the ram questioned.
“Because we were just together. I walked her to her house. I waved goodbye, she waved back. I was walking away when I saw a van race past me. I looked back and saw that she was gone. The bracelet I got her was on the sidewalk.”
“Did you see her get into the car?”
“No, I was still walking away. I hadn’t turned around yet.”
“Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Not much.”
After his visit, Will went to the library to look into the flamingo thing. After an hour of searching he finally found something. Two flamingos, a brother and sister had gone missing way far out in Ponddale, in Lagoon State. Lagoon State was nowhere near the border and the siblings had gone missing fifteen years ago. The townspeople assumed they had drowned in the pond, as a body had been found by a young Groundhog and his father while they were on a fishing trip. The skeleton was found three years after the disappearances so the police couldn’t be sure if it belonged to one of the flamingo siblings. The town had pronounced the two dead anyway and the incident was never talked of again.
Will found out that the siblings were five and seven when they disappeared. That would make them twenty and twenty-two now. The flamingos he had seen in the porno looked about that age.
The ram then looked up pornography that featured flamingos. The one he had seen was called Beneath Pink Sheets. The site that sold it was selling movies with similar titles like Pink and Naked, Two Pink Beaks Are Better than One, and Pink Party Orgy. They each showed the cover of the film. These covers all featured a pair of flamingos, one male and one female, the same flamingos he saw in Beneath Pink Sheets.
There were also other titles for sale, but these did not show their covers. There were tons of them: Young Pink Sluts, Teen Pink, Little and Pink, Pinkie Love, Pink Clit/Pink Dick, Baby Pink Birthday Party!…and so many more. Will read the description of one of them, Baby Pink Birthday Party! and had to stop midway. It read: “Watch as these cute little virgins get the present of a lifetime from their much older birthday guests! Celebrate with us and watch these siblings get their baby cunts and asses fucked for the first time. Warning: blood & gore, hardcore, violence…” Will had to take a break. He wanted to vomit. Those poor kids…they were just kids! No wonder their covers couldn’t be posted on their shitty website. Fucking child porn!
Will went back to his hotel room, got himself some dinner, and searched some more. Apparently there used to be another site where you could buy this shit, it was run by a giraffe named Derrick Lendon. He was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment for making and selling child pornography. Apparently he was the only one in his ring that was caught because these videos were still being sold today on their new site.
Will called up Crawford and let him in on everything. “I’m going to go over to the prison and interview the guy tomorrow.”
“Alright Will. This is the biggest lead we’ve got.”
When the conversation was over, Will finished his already cold clover pasta and went to bed.
The next day Will sat across from the giraffe in a small room meant for interrogations. The animal’s hands were cuffed to the table: protocol. Derrick didn’t appear violent.
“Mr. Lendon,” the ram began, “Have you ever seen this before?” Will held up a printed photo, a cover for the porno Pink and Naked.
“Yeah,” the Giraffe smiled.
“Did you work on this?”
“Naw, but I sold it. I do computer shit. I made a webpage and sold the porn there.” The guy looked smug.
“Did you know these two?” Will pointed to the siblings on the cover. “What was his name?”
“Why? You lookin’ for a boyfriend?” The giraffe laughed.
Will got out another picture, a picture of two flamingos, five and seven, playing outside on a porch swing. “How about them? Do you know them?”
“You tell me.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you. I think you do know these kids. I think you took these kids from their home and used them in your sick films. I think your trafficking pedophile ring is still using them. Drugging them up every day and featuring them in these pornos. How about that?”
“Ok, sure, what if they are the same kids? What then? How are you going to find them?” he was still smiling.
“I guess you don’t get to watch the news much in here. Your friends are getting sloppy, making mistakes. The Prey FBI is all over the recent disappearances. It’s only a matter of time until your friends are caught.”
The giraffe lost his smile and looked confused. “Wait, what? What disappearances? What the fuck are you talking about? ‘My friends’, as you call them, don’t go around kidnapping people. They make pornos, that’s it. Some of them may be a bit risqué, but hey what’s new?”
“Wait, but then what about the flamingos? Didn’t you kidnap them?”
“No. We bought them.”
“You bought them? From who?”
“I don’t know. My friend was the one who got them. Paid a shit ton too. He said he would give me a small cut of the profit if I sold the films. Gave me barely anything. Those guys are not my friends. I only saw them whenever they wanted to sell a new film. Scary-ass bastards.”
“What were their names? What animals were they?”
“I don’t know. The guy who was in contact with me just told me to call him R, like the letter. And I have no fucking clue what animals they were. Never seen an animal like him before. He had a long tail though.”
“How could you not know what animals they were? Did you never go to school or something? Were you a hermit living in a cave when you made those fucked up movies?!” Will was getting frustrated.
“You don’t get it; I have never seen anything like that guy before. Maybe a new species or something. Hell if I know!”
“So what, R told you he bought some kids off someone, made some pornos, and asked you to sell them?”
“Yup, that’s about it. He would come to my house with a new film and I would put it on the site. Then I gave it to Tyler.”
“Tyler? Who’s Tyler?”
“He makes the copies and ships them out to the buyers. He’s not like them, he’s a mole. Lived close by”, He said getting bored with the conversation.
“What, so R and his friends don’t live close?”
“No, at least R didn’t. He said it was always a hassle to sell here. Said he lived far away or something.”
Will made a call to Crawford and told him what he had found out. It confused them both and Will told the bison he would call him back when he reached the next site.
As will was driving to the next border state, he stopped to get gas. There was a panda slumped against a tree at the other end of the gas station. The guy looked haggard and Will empathized immediately. He bought two subs at the small convenience store attached to the gas station and walked over to the panda.
“Hey, um sir, you okay?”
“Hmm?” the guy looked up at him, bleary eyed and confused.
“Sir, my name is Will, what’s yours?” Will asked, offering the panda a sandwich.
“Charlie,” he said shakily taking the offering. “Thank you.”
Will sat on the ground next to the guy and started eating his own sandwich. “Charlie, what are you doing out here? It’s the middle of nowhere.”
“Been walking,” he said, taking a large bite out of the sub.
“To where? Do you have any family around here?”
“No, no family. Just walking. I lost my home in the storm a few weeks back. Lost everything. I’ve been walking to Wetlandale.”
“You mean Hurricane Herman? You’re from Penton? That’s horrible. Why don’t you let me give you a ride?” the ram offered.
“Thank you.”
When they were done eating, Will helped Charlie up and into his car. There were only a few cars at the gas station, it was practically deserted. Who knows if anyone would have helped the panda, Will doubted it.
Will drove a ways and in a few hours made it to the border states. It was still a few hours till he would reach the next site. Before that he needed to drop off the Panda at a shelter. He drove to the next gas station and somehow doubted Crawford would reimburse him for all the gas money. Will got out of his car, and began filling his tank. The Panda was eating a small snack Will had bought for him. While filing the tank, Will noticed something up the road. He squinted to see it better. It looked like some animal with a hood was holding something. The guy was looking directly at Will, trying to show him what he held.
Will finished filling his tank and walked out to the road. He walked toward the guy yelling, “Hey, you alright? You need something?” Will was still squinting to see what the guy held out to him. It looked like some kind of jar. As he approached he saw it. It was a jar all right, but not just any jar. This jar was filled with liquid that held a disembodied head. A lamb head. Before Will could get sick, he heard a van door open. He turned around and saw two large blurred figures moving quickly.
Will reached into his holster, dodging a blow. He fumbled around and pulled out his weapon. The gun felt heavy in Will’s hand. He’d held one in training of course, but now he was out on the field for the first time. This was life or death. A student, he never thought that he would end up a target, a potential victim. He was in over his head already and another guy was getting out of the van. He should have never taken on this case. Crawford had recommended him.
Before he could even aim his gun, one guy had hold of his arms. He was forced to drop his gun. Before he could formulate a plan, the other guy had placed a foul-smelling cloth to his nose. Before Will could lose consciousness, the two unidentifiable animals hoisted him into the backseat of the car. Then all was black.
Finnian Siog 