The Children

Chapter 1: Cold night

A young girl no older than 14 limbs down the empty night streets of johannesburg, her right eye clawed out with blood and juices from her pierced eyeball leaking out, she held her arm over her ribs most of which were broken , one could at any moment now stab an organ and kill her but she could barely feel the pain as she had 34mg of JS in her a system, a new street drug still making rounds as free samples to the desperate hobos who would take anything to feel anything , no information on what it was, who supplies and distributes for now the authorities were not even aware of it , JS was known by so little people that it was practically a myth of course any one who had taken it had died in no more than 12 hours , the highest dosage amongst its victims being 8mg.

Her vision was shot with the missing eye, JS and overall state her body was in, all she could see was a raging fire in the far distance then again it could be right in front of her and she'd be walking right into it, would she even feel the burns? Regardless she crawled on till she could feel the warmth of the fire slowly embracing her almost comforting then she saw them barely at least 3 men in their late twenties homeless , two of them looked at her in horror shifting away as she got closer but the last man stared at Rita's torn body, her left arm broken and twisted in a way no doctor could fix , missing fingers on and somehow found that appealing he grabs Rita by her already swollen neck , she could not resist as the man drags her into a tent not that far from the tire fire , a gun goes off two shots before a man in a tailored suit comes through the tent and delivers another shot through the rapist's head, he had not gotten far but was able to destroy what was left of her clothes ," oh Jason? I knew him before the drugs , he was a good man" the man in a suit calmly remarked stepping over Jason's body and closer to Rita " See what happens when you disobey me,Chloe?" he flings Rita on his shoulder and walks out answering his phone "So far…i have Kyle and now Chloe but she won't make it to tomorrow "

The Procurt orphanage was amongst the biggest orphanages in Johannesburg despite this they had 0 adoptions every year, the entire city knew the orphanage was using the orphans as slaves, renting them out as drug mules and some to sex rings they allegedly buy the orphans from human traffickers and with official papers as an orphanage they can justify having up to 200 children in their possession , the only people who would even come to Procurt hoping to adopt were rich tourist from abroad hoping to get a ' excotic ' child to complete their family so they can go back home and boast about breaking norms and not seeing race . The matron was commonly known as " big mama " contrary to what the name might lead you to believe she was actually slim , no one remembers why she's called big mama but no one knew her real name so it stuck, she was always in her office which itself was isolated from the orphanage the distance between covered by a large garden .

The man in a suit walks in, holding a cigar before he could say anything big mama opens the conversation " you should not smoke infront of the kids, it sets a bad example " the man chuckles " Not even you can get your hands on this lil fine piece, expensive but worth every inhale and lung disease " Big Mama did not look up from her laptop constantly mashing the keyboard " any deliveries? Troy " she asked . Troy: opposite , 3 orders….big ones…215 in total…190 in pink Big Mama: one of the big three suppliers was hit a month ago, and the other 2 capitalized by raising their prices even before this, the biggest order we ever got was 23, another thing every single connection we had in the police was also cut … I am sorry but we can't accept this job. Troy: 2,3 million…..a million each, 100k for the orphanage and R200K for our other staff Big mama:...... Troy: I thought you'd be more excited to make a million…also I've already accepted and spent the deposits Big mama closes her PC, a look of defeat on her face met with a bright smile on Troy's , " we only have about 10 here, sadly all blue, the rest were bought out as soon as news hit the streets that supply will be cut and prices will surge, we can expect collection from next week " Troy: ohh i know …I have a plan to get us a bit more than half of what you need,I'll just need all your manpower , I'll also take those ten blues .

Theres a knock on the door, Troy answers for them to come in, Rita walks in abit older now her entire left arm amputated , an eye patch over her right eye, cut and burn marks going down her neck hidden by her hoodie and sweatpants but continuing till her feet , " Good evening big mama , hey Troy" she weaves at Troy then bows her head at BM . BM: Evening Chloe, I am going to keep this short , you are turning twenty soon which means you aged out of the system 2 years ago we unfortunately going to have to let you go .. Troy: Ohhh money is tight..and with Chloe being disfigured she cannot be sold as a sex toy and she brings way too much attention to be a drug mule…… Rita : Troy: You know what, I have 3000 , I'll take her. I need a new right hand . Big Mama sighs dismissing Rita with a hand signal as she leaves ,shutting the door. BM turns her attention back to Troy " We'll discuss your lil pity party after, if you have a plan to get just over half where are the rest going to come from ?" Troy: You're smart, you'll figure it out . Troy leaves, on his way out the younger orphans cheer upon seeing him "uncle T !" and almost like a magic trick he pulls sweets out of nowhere giving away about 4 to each, some got lucky with 5-6 meanwhile BM was pacing around her office until pulling out her phone and calling the front reception " send one of the boys to my office" minutes later, Tom walks in, a young boy barely 13 a bright smile on his face, enjoying sweets he got from uncle T on his way here, she locks the door and begins taking off her top " hey Tom,Big mama needs a little favor ".

Chapter 2: William and William

A young detective turning 20 sits in an empty office, remarkably large but he had only put to use a single corner ,his desk and a whiteboard right next to it, and there was nothing else in the room, he had a top floor view of the city but chose to somehow install a drape so the room could be pitch black when he turned off the light he was completely engulfed in a project he labelled " missing home?" he had about 50 files on his desk on divided by his laptop , there was a knock on the door and before William could raise his head from his PC , the man was in holding 2 cans of energy drink , handing one to William and cracking the other open " those pigs already have you working, you just busted 2 major operations and you clearly haven't even gotten comfortable here, you're using up less space then you did in old our cramped office first" William and William started working for the agency at the same day , yes they shared a name and ended up being assigned to each other a coincidence or someone in HR could not let the opportunity go, the duo did not just share a name and a cramped over their three year partnership they came to learn they share the same music taste, humour , hobbies , ideals and even a raging caffeine addiction they also didn't look too far off from each other , dark hair,brown eyes, dark circles ,short nose ,big eyes and same physique really the biggest key difference between them was one of them was bisexual but no one in agency knew which one ,some even think this was just a rumour so to differentiate between the ' twins ' they referred to one of them as Wilt because the entire right side of his torso and arm appears wilted but he has confirmed to concerned colleagues that it is not a nerve injury , he grew up like this, was checked multiple times and was even to build muscle , most likely this was a rare tissue disorder which he could not care to research .

Wilt was the younger detective( by a month exactly), who was introduced sitting in his new office , Will was the older twin now skimming over Wilt's notes " Every file at the agency is available through the computers and have been since the agency started so we don't even have physical files so..you care to explain where you Stole these ? or why you had to tear out the spots most likely to have had a watermark? " Wilt: Like I said…..personal project so my files Will: William, I am far older and wiser than you , you know what else is older than you? These files…I doubt you were even conceived when police still documented cases in physical files . Wilt: If you knew I stole them from the police station,why'd you ask? Also how did you know ? Will: old man intuition , now debrief . Wilt stands up,covering the three steps between his seat and the whiteboard and begins scribbling while Will sits on the desk edge " Do you remember last month when I busted that large Human trafficking circuit ..around the same time you weeded out corrupt officers in the city police well I reviewed our notes and realised some of the corrupt officers you caught were social workers who also came up at some point in my investigation but also..every single officer who ever worked on the 'Procurt project' ended up being in the list of the corrupt officers " Wilt ended his statement there and proceeding to take his seat while Will takes the last chug of his energy drink Will:Okay….a majority of the city knows Procurt is corrupt but no one could prove anything because they had their papers right and passed every inspection the city conducted even the surprise pop-ups , at the peak of these allegations multiple police investigations were conducted even private agencies got involved, the children and staff were interviewed multiple times but still….they came out clean so officially they are legally cleared… but we can deduce that the police staged the interviews Wilt: Not really…they….. Wilt is interrupted by the clock hitting six, their work day was over, Wilt shuts his PC , wipes the whiteboard as the two make their way out of the office, locking it then heading out of the building . " I wanna pick up skateboarding ".

Chapter 3: remember Rita?

Rita sits on sidewalk next to a black sportscar with 5% tint windows despite leaving a place she knew as home for almost 20 years, she leaves with only the clothes on her back it had only been 10 minutes since Troy bought her and she went straight to his car , another 10 minutes went by before Troy came around, watching him walk towards her triggered memories of a warm fire turning violent and engulfing her, she shrugged it off cause this had happened every so often ever since she woke up from the incident. Rita didn't remember how she lost her eye and arm or much of her life before that, all she remembers was waking up in hospital with big mama sitting beside her with worried eyes then glimpses of big mama taking her to the orphanage from there she was given a recap of her life " Your name is Chloe, you were gifted to the orphanage at three, you love gardening and your favorite fruit is blueberries " her memories never came back despite everything the orphanage did, her childhood toys, playing videos of her growing up, reenacting fond memories and even a tour to her special locations , nothing worked she just took the memories from third perspective and tried to build a self image with them but she did find an odd sense of belonging in gardening.

Troy opens the passenger door for her then comes around into the driver's and drives off " Thank you….." Rita squeaks " she would've sold me for less, free even you chose to pay so I could have delusions of worth to someone " . Troy doesn't turn his head instead focusing on the way forward responses in a cold monotone " Or I just wanted to establish ownership " Rita didn't respond, instead the duo drove in silence till entering an underground garage, the place was abandoned and there was only one other car completely identical to Troy's he parks oddly far away before walking out to it, of course Rita follows.

A woman was sitting on the hood of the twin car, Rita could see more and more of her features as she got closer, she looked to be in her late thirties wearing casual sweatpants and oversized hoodie, she had short hair, pale skin and hazel eyes but as she got closer she noticed a young girl hands tied behind her back, legs tied together laying on a carpet at the older woman's feet, Troy walks up and seemingly ignores the girl on the floor " This is Chloe as I've informed you, she'll be my be my new right hand " The woman dots her eyes over to Rita hovering over her missing right arm before turning back to Troy " hilarious " she exclaims sarcastically now pulling out a knife and lifting the tied up woman's right arm " wait…" Troy stops her, taking the knife from her hand then handing it to Rita " I want Chloe to do it " Rita's heart starts pounding and she is frozen in fear, she knew Troy had to be in sketchy business but never thought anything that involved torture, her eyes paced between Troy, the woman and the victim over and over again " Uncle T, I-iiii-iii " Rita stutters over her words now feeling like her heart was louder then her words and soon she blacked out.

Rita wakes up on the carpet next to the victim who was now also up, screaming Rita rolls over then up to her feet looking around, she couldn't see Troy or the woman but both cars were still there " RUN …Run before they came back….leave me here " Rita's heart starts pounding again freezing while standing over the victim everything goes quiet just like before she blacked out " Behind you !!" the victim screams before an arm slants over Rita's shoulders it was Troy now holding a cup of ice cream soon followed by the woman who instead had a cone " if you're going to be my right hand, you're going to have to prove your loyalty and also no sleeping on the job " while speaking Troy slips the knife back into Rita's hand she looks down at the victim, screaming and crying she saw herself in her they were roughly the same height, had the same hair , eye color and skin complexion it felt like they were asking her to stab herself, Rita falls to her knees close to the victim with eyes tearing up drives the knife through her right shoulder and cuts down, she pulls it out and thrusts it into her shoulder with more fire " Now stab through her left eye " with that statement from Troy, Rita pieced together what was happening she hesitated .

Chapter 4: The body

" The body of a young woman was found " headlines read , the story spreads across the city, the charred body of Chloe, an orphan at the Procurt orphanage.Big mama switches the TV as the news begins to dive deeper into the orphanage 'Did she not meet your twisted fantasy or was burning her and leaving her in parking lot part of it? did you have your way with the body before burning it ? ' she did not seem sad that a child she raised for almost 21 years was died but instead upset that in the next coming days the press will flood the orphanage, they'll have to set up a ceremony to honour her while the orphanage was already struggling just not on paper, on the paper the orphanage should have a surplus of close to ten thousand reserved for such an event and this would give detectives an excuse to come sniffing around

Troy barely reacted, he lit his cigar and pulled out a cheque 'I realised too late that She was useless to me and I know you have a strict no return policy which Chloe and I already broke once so I took care of it..but seems I did fuck up with disposing the body I'll cover the costs for the front cause I know its been costing the orphanage quite alot to dispose of your little snacks,I noticed I have not seen Tommy today'

'I have got an excuse to go around digging at Procurt orphanage' Wilt announces walking into his own office and finding WIlliam, they both recently got their own offices and moved out of their shared space but it seems they still chose to stay cramped together.Wilt was holding Rita's case file he read out loud'Chloe Scotts?' he paused for awhile looking at William 'Sounds familiar somehow but its not in our database', William was yet to respond when Wilt threw the file onto the desk and announced 'Okay..I need your help I have a feeling we need to close this case by Friday,I just cannot explain it to you ' ,WIlliam now finally given an talking spoon extends out a energy drink 'You are this week's Bi because of the buff and shine'

'I'll be back Friday to get the manpower and I'll have half the order saturday' Troy exclaims existing Big mama's office.