16 Chapter 16

The morning turned out far darker than Emerick had anticipated, even knowing what he knew already about the deplorable institute. The images and objects he had found in that room left him sick to his stomach and with a bitter view of the world as a whole. Shuffling through the mess of an office space—if you could call it that—Emerick soon discovered that the degree of evil inflicted on these children exceeded every expectation of depravity he thought capable by creature. Even the demons that walked the endless plains beyond the kingdom boarders who were the fuel of horrendous horror tales seemed tame compared to these mere mortals.

He hadn't expected to find as much he did as quickly as he had. He thought such atrocious acts would have had some kind of mask to shroud their existence, but there had been absolutely no attempt to hide the negligence, the money laundering, the illegal slave trade, the abuse, or even the outright rape and murder that occurred on what seemed a daily basis. All of it was strung up on cubicles like accomplishments, trophies, or even fond memories. Looking at the tragedies captured in black in white and entrenched into every aspect of that grotesque grotto, Emerick almost wished the world, and all the evil in it would just burn. Almost.

Part of him wanted to blame his father. He wanted to scold Arnwald, give him a good thrashing even, for not acting on his worries sooner. He wanted to, but, it wasn't Arnwald's doing. In fact his father had been working to fix a number of sects of corruption sewn by the previous ruler, and it had taken his father decades to improve the lives of his subjects to the point where he could consider the region somewhat prosperous. Between the four major cities and dozens of small villages filling the lands between them, he was constantly working, so much so his wives would often take drastic measures to force him to rest. And that was before getting into raising his numerous daughters, purging the plains of undead, and checking the kingdom's protections to prevent even more catastrophic situations from arising.

Even so, Emerick felt it should've been looked into. There was no good reason those orphans should've lived as they had for so long. It turned his stomach to think back on the light hearted conversation he and Arnwald had only the morning prior.

Gritting his teeth, he stuffed as much hard evidence as he could into a duffle bag he found stuffed under one of the desks. There was more to be had, but he prioritized the worst of it then crept carefully to the front entrance where he knew Jacoby would be waiting.

"Do you have some time?" Emerick asked while carefully sticking to the shadows to avoid potentially being spotted by a passerby.

"Nobody is in the near vicinity," Jacoby commented. "You don't need to lurk about."

"I'm not really in the mood to be heckled," Emerick growled. "What I found… well it's pretty harrowing. These people… I don't know where to begin."

Jacoby didn't say anything for a minute. He was focused on writing, and from the looks of the stack of paper on that clipboard, he had enough material to fill a novel. Once he got to what Emerick assumed was a reasonable stopping point, Jacoby set down his pencil and looked him in the eye.

"I have an idea where," Jacoby stated. Emerick saw his own anguish and fury reflected clearly in Jacoby's expression. "I investigated the rest of the perimeter. That pack of strays your companion mentioned… they aren't mere strays. Those were death hounds."

"I was afraid that might be the case," Emerick gritted his teeth. "Given what I found, it adds up. They don't even bother to… to…"

"Burn the bodies?" Jacoby finished what Emerick couldn't bring himself to say. "Given the size of the sorry excuse of a mass grave in that yard, and the oppression and cruelty involved, it's something of a miracle we haven't had an outbreak of undead."

"I would imagine that's why the death hounds are here," Emerick speculated. "It would be impossible for them to enter the city unless someone brought them in."

"The fact those hounds aren't rampaging suggest there's some sort of demon involved as well," Jacoby added.

"One problem at a time," Emerick sighed and shook his head. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Have you updated my father?"

"I intend to finish the inspection first," Jacoby replied. "Am I to assume that bag you have is additional evidence?"

Without a word, Emerick extended the duffle to Jacoby, who froze the moment he took it and caught a whiff of the contents. Stiffly, jaw tense and eyes blazing, Jacoby used his free hand to retrieve a small, slim box from his vest pocket. Emerick had witnessed it a million times, but even so he found himself fascinated as he watched the inconceivable process of the massive duffle slipping into the tiny pocket box. The tiny dimensional door would deposit anything put through it in a repository his father had arranged for everything they found related to the inspection turned investigation, where it would be reviewed.

"There's more," Emerick said in disgust as the bag completely vanished and Jacoby replaced the box into his pocket. "Too much more. I took what I could carry of the worst of it."

"This was in the main office?" Jacoby confirmed. Emerick nodded. "Very well. I'll be sure to pay it a visit while I make my rounds."

"If you have everything at hand here, I think I'll resume my work." Emerick forced a smile. He didn't want to go back into that barbaric building, but if he didn't take the time to root out the whole of the problem, it would only resurface elsewhere and likely be all the harder to detect.

"What do you intend to do next?" Jacoby questioned. He had resumed writing, but based on the position of his ears Emerick could tell he was listening intently.

"While we certainly have enough evidence to take the heads of every instructor assigned here, I want to find all of the accomplices to these crimes," Emerick informed him, his demeanor darkening as he spoke. "I'm going to see what I can learn from the orphans here, get an idea of what they do and where they go on a daily basis, and I'm going to keep an eye out for the book keeper. If you could do the same, I'd appreciate it."

"As you wish sir," Jacoby agreed with a nod. Satisfied, Emerick retreated back into the building to await the arrival of the students and faculty. He didn't have to wait long.