Chapter Two: Findings

"Preventers!"

The room remained still, shrouded in an uneasy darkness that threw Noin and Sally on the edge. The safety of their guns was flicked off, through they relaxed the position of their guns to point at the ground, tensed and prepared to fire at any possible threat.

"It's too still." Noin commented with narrowed eyes as she stepped lightly into the house. They were hoping not to make much sound—though such an approach was already dashed out the window when they broke the door down.

Sally nodded at the statement. There was an unearthly quiet that resided in the house, sending shivers down her spine and making her hair rise. Agony and despair seemed to hang in the room, which remained unnaturally cool. Even for winter, it was too chill.

"Shouldn't the furnace be running?" Sally murmured to herself, "Or at least any sort of appliance?" Noin didn't respond.

Together, the two of them walked into what they supposed was the living room. They made their way down a hall and encountered some stairs.

Glancing at them, Sally made eye contact with Noin. The bluish haired woman shook her head fervently, glaring all the while at her partner. "We are not slitting up in a situation like this. It's too dangerous and there's no back up waiting for us with a simple call."

Lowering her head with a defeated smile on her face, Sally let out the breath she had held, "Une is going to have our heads if this is a prank."

Noin rubbed her forearm while her other arm held the loaded and readied gun steady. "It doesn't seem like a prank. If it is," she coldly remarked, "It sure is one hell of a good one."

Her words, clearing the heavy mood that was almost suffocating, gave birth to a small smile from the golden-haired woman.

Tossing a braid over her shoulder lightly, she turned with a half-smirk on her face, her eyes dead serious, "Let's go."

Noin nodded.

The stairs creaked a little near the top as they reached the threshold of the upper level. Sally didn't bother to suppress a shiver upon their reach. It seemed ever colder up here. 'What are these people, Eskimos?' she huffed.

Continuing on, a sudden crunch made Noin and Sally freeze in their steps. Turning her head, Sally's light periwinkle eyes met Noin's startled own. Their gaze flickered downward.

A flashlight was produced from their standard utility belt. Broken glass littered the floor; dried smears of blood could be seen on the dirty floor. Noin let the flashlight trail to where the blood seemed to lead.

There—to the right was a door ajar. The room inside was obviously dark since no lights were on at all in the house.

Stepping lightly over the glass with their boots, they raised their weapons. Sally with her gun loaded and Noin with the light and her gun loaded, caught eyes with each other and prepared to enter the room at the same time.

A silent countdown started in their heads. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…

"Ready?"

Noin nodded stern and stiffly at Sally's question. Her gun was in a prepared position, as was her flashlight.

"NOW!"

The door was kicked open by Noin's foot this time. The flashlight darted back and forth inside the room. A rat scurried away, hiding back and lurking in the corner with a torn piece of cloth in its grimy mouth. Red beady eyes stare at them curiously before the critter darted back from whence it came—into a crack running up the side of the wall.

There was a thud.

Noin turned from the part of the room where her eyes were scouting to see what the noise was about. Her gun tumbled to the floor. Sally's was already lying there, glinting in the artificial light.

There, tied and bound to a four poster bed lacking a canopy, was a small boy.

Sally dashed forward, her hands quivering as she leaned down to grab her switchblade and cut the boy free from his holdings. Her palm grazed over the boy's forehead to feel the cold skin. Her other hand worked at the boy's wrists, ignoring the stark white scars lacing his inner forearm all the way to his elbows, to feel for a pulse.

"Noin, call an ambulance!" Jerked out of her thoughts, Noin nodded with worry clouded her eyes as she pulled out her communicator.

There was a weak thud against Sally's fingers that brought relief to her soul. The boy was alive. Her heart clenched painfully, however, when she double-took on the state the boy was in.

An unnaturally colored white skin stretched over bone and some muscle. There didn't look to be an ounce of fat on the boy. His wrists were so thin that she could wrap her hand over them and feel her pinky against her thumb with room to spare. The boy lacked a shirt, what she assumed were the tattered and ripped pieces scattered around the room. His ribs and almost any bone in his body could be seen. A thin blanket was lying tangled at his waist, bunched near the foot of the bed. Red angry marks marred the boy's skin, some bruises a sickly yellow or green color, and other's swelling with blues and purples. Cuts also line the boy's body, sometimes even puncture wounds here and there. There were claw marks and bruises on the boy's body. His wrists were turning an ugly shade of purple where the skin wasn't already bleeding from the coarse rope he had been bound with.

"Noin?" Sally never knew her voice could sound so small, meek, and useless.

Her friend appeared by her side, "Yes?" she questioned quietly. Her eyes took on a seriousness of their own when they analyzed the boy's situation.

"Is the ambulance coming?" a curt nod was what she received.

"I'm worried," Noin nodded, putting a comforting hand on Sally's shaking shoulder.

"We don't have the equipment to help him. Would it be best to move him?"

"Noin," she turned, a braid was brushed over her shoulder once more, "I think we should get him downstairs in the car. It's too cold in here." Her thoughts remained silent in her mind---'I'm afraid that he won't make it…'

"All right." She leaned forward and gently as ever lifted the light boy. "He can't weigh anything over one hundred pounds at the maximum."

Sally's hands clenched at her side.

Picking up the flashlight that Noin had dropped in her shock, she looked over the room once more. Her eyes halted for a moment, staying on the smashed phone lying on the ground. There was a pool of blood near it. Grabbing a cleaner and not bloodstained sheet off the bed to try and keep the boy at least a little one, she lingered once more. Then, she turned and dashed down the stairs, not caring however much noise she made in her wake.

Sirens could be heard from outside. A policeman walked into the house, looking at the broken down door and greeting her with a half-hearted smile.

He bowed his head slightly, "Miss Po."

She nodded, "Look the house over for any occupants." The noises from gathering neighbors outside made her look out the window to see a few interested reporters bunching around to question the crowds or other officers.

The ambulance was out front, shining its lights.

Her attention was drawn back into the situation that they were currently in, "I'll send a few agents of our own out here to help investigate. Try to not move anything unless needed." He nodded, "We need evidence so we can analyze the situation."

She then turned, leaving the frigid house to head towards Noin. The ambulance let out a whining sound that filled the once silent night air and took off, speeding towards the hospital.

"We should tail them." Noin suggested as she revved the engine of their patrol jeep, "It would do good to see someone not dressed up in a uniform in an unknown place."

"Yes." Sally agreed, "Poor kid. I… I feel like I have to do something. I mean, how come it's always us that these things happen to?"

Noin bowed her head slightly; Sally couldn't see her eyes, "I know." She murmured, quiet as ever, "I know."

TBC