5 Years Later

The blue glow reflected off his glasses in the dim light as he chased down another lead into dark places that it shouldn’t have unravelled into. The latest string of disappearances in the city had caught Colton’s newfound interest in detective work.

All of the victims were returned, most of whom were completely unharmed, within hours of their disappearance. They were from every demographic, whether they were teenagers, men, women, any shade that graced the sun, rich, or poor; it didn’t seem to matter to whoever was behind this.

They all came back with the same report: a tall, white man, dressed like a priest, asking them questions about their communities, if anyone in particular stood out, the types of problems that were prevalent across the city, and the specific problems in their communities.

Each of the injured victims reported that they had initially refused to talk, and he hit them until they did, occasionally using tools for the ones who held out longer.

None could give out a name. Only that he requested to be called “Father”.

But as he looked into the disappearances, earlier ones surfaced. Disappearances from just before Evan died—disappearances with the same MO as the current ones.

Then, more from other states with the same pattern, just before another disappearance that was never returned.

If Evan were another victim of this, it had already happened four times before now. But this was the first repeat state, the first time they had gone to the same spot to try again.

Because Evan died, he assumed. The other three must have survived and were being held somewhere, possibly together, and now this “Father” was invested in getting his fourth back.

Fourth for what? Colton couldn’t be sure.

He just knew that this next parade just had to be the replacement for Evan.

Colton had changed a lot in the five years that had followed his best friend’s death. He had been trapped between the past and the present. He spent most of his days on autopilot, trying his best to learn how to live in a world that no longer had what felt like his other half. His days were spent reliving that night, going out on their bike to find him, before he remembered he was too late again.

At some point, he started roaming around the city wherever their bike would take him after going to the warehouses to see the missing building, then the construction for the new White Facility that had found a home in its place.

As he roamed the streets, he started to see a pattern hidden beyond the street lights. Nothing that he could confirm by sight alone, but as he started to look into the activities that he saw. The drug deals that hit too close to home, the assaults that were never prosecuted, and the murders that were cleaned up and never investigated.

Every time he went to the police database for more information, the little he saw filled him with dread. Evan wasn’t the only one that they had failed, and no one seemed able to do anything about it.

And these disappearances were no exception. Nothing had been filed outside of their isolated statements floating around in their database, like they were only taken to keep up the appearance that they were doing something to end their suffering.

It filled Colton with the familiar rage he couldn’t seem to get rid of since that night.

He took a deep breath as he tried to turn his focus back onto the screen, shoving the memory and the rage back down into the pits of his soul that he’d be able to unleash on some poor training dummy that he kept in their basement, so he didn’t have to go into the studio during the odd hours he kept.

“Mister White?”

Colton flinched, not used to the address yet.

“Why are you still at the computer? You are expected at the gala in less than an hour.” The newest family butler asked. He had been hired onto the team less than a month before the accident that had taken his parents from him six months ago.

“Do I have to go?” I mumbled, feeling more like a child begging for more time to play before bedtime than a man who’d rather bury himself in work that wasn’t his instead of attending his parents’ memorial gala on their anniversary and acknowledging that he will never see them again.

Just like Evan.

Just like their childhood dog.

He thought one at a time was bad, at least with their dog, they knew that their senior wasn’t going to be able to hold on much longer, but the other three…

All sudden. All unexpected. All suspicious.

“It would be ill-advised to miss the memorial, considering you are publicly hosting it in their honor for a charity that they loved.”

I sighed, knowing that he was right. I hated myself for bringing attention back to them so soon, and I hated more that I had decided to do it the way that they would have for him.

He wasn’t them, he’d never be them. He’d never live up to the legacy that they had built over the course of their lives. The legacy that had been crafted for generations would die with him.

The only thing that he was good at was the business side of running an empire that had withstood nearly a century, beating the odds during the great depression with his great-grandmother’s scheme, which he’d only ever heard about after she passed. Something he was repeatedly accused of inheriting from her anytime a deal went his way.

He was able to handle anything that came his way, even when the business side got dark. Some people took his hesitation as weakness, but when he brought out the blackmail that same hesitation granted him, suddenly, they were more than pleased to comply with the deal that best benefited him.

With a sigh, he shut down the computer and pushed away from the computer. “Let the driver know to pull out front and keep the car warm. I’ll be out in time to make it there.”

His butler left with a curt nod as Colton stretched out his aching limbs after sitting still for so long.

Colton still hesitated a moment, his thoughts splayed out for miles for whoever decided to walk into the old, creaking office next. Fortunately for him, that person never came. Not when he waltzed out of the door as if he did not have a single care in the entire world, or as he dressed in record time, not bothering with the tie that his father would have insisted that he wear.

He could almost hear the old man’s gruff voice chastising him, “A White never leaves for anything half-dressed.”

He could almost hear the retort that always followed. “We do tend to come back in a lot less than that, Dad. What’s one less tie?”

Mom always came in at that moment and glared at him. Colton knew that wasn’t something she was interested in hearing from her only son. But it wasn’t his fault that her timing was always impeccable for his cheap embarrassment.

As he climbed into the back of the limo, half in his suit jacket, he remembered that he wouldn’t have to worry about her walking in on more embarrassing moments that he would inevitably regret.

“You think this is in time to make it to the gala?” The tenured driver, Rowan, lifted his eyebrow at Colton through his rearview mirror.

“Fashionably late?” Colton tried defending himself.

“Without a tie? Not a chance.”

Rowan had known Colton since before he was born and had picked him up out of some pretty bad spots, usually with Evan. He’d seen it all at that point. Including his father’s lectures about his ties.

He pulled a long black tie out from his center console and tossed it back to him, “Put it on before he starts turning.” It’s said like a joke, but it doesn’t land like one. Too soon, too true.

Colton stared at the cloth as they slowly pulled out of the long driveway on their way to the venue, more than fashionably late. He tied the tie, taking his time like it was his first time, like his dad was teaching him from the bathroom as he shaved.

Once finished, he stared out the window, wondering if another person would go missing that night. If they would be brought back to their families or if they’d never be seen again.

The thought gnawed at him as they drove through the familiar streets. The knowledge that another person would be traumatized while he celebrated the lives of his parents throughout the night.

He waltzed through the large double doors, ignoring the reporters who had been cleaning up their cameras and microphones by the time they finally arrived, and was greeted by a sea of familiar faces who had all known his parents in one way or another.

Colton began going through the motions of mingling, following the same path that his mom had used a million times, while his dad talked with his business partners or golf buddies. He accepted the condolences gratefully, glad that there was something that he wouldn’t have to pretend for.

In the sea of familiarity, she drew his eye. A girl, too young to hold the elegance that was usually earned through years of experience, with an ease that almost seemed genuine.

Almost.

There was something to her, just off enough that he didn’t notice on first glance. From a distance, he couldn’t place what it was that was setting off his radar, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her or the man she was constantly next to.

She was in a floor-length silver gown that shimmered in the low lights, her long dark braid trailing down her back, speckled with white and gold decorations that echoed her dress and the golden cuffs that she wore on her arms that complemented her tanned skin beautifully as though the color had been created specifically for her to wear.

The man was in all black, in an unassuming suit that looked like nothing that he could quite place, but seemed old and familiar. He looked old enough to be her grandfather, and guided her along the floor as though the girl were the prize of the gala.

Colton made the usual rounds, trying his best to seem focused on the reason that they were there, grabbing the occasional drink as he mingled to drown out the insistent, intrusive thoughts to go investigate his gut feeling. instead of allowing everyone to mourn with him, as they had come to do.

But his eyes sought the pair.

Everyone in attendance knew his parents and could be vouched for, except for them. He didn’t recognize them, and anyone who brings them up doesn’t either. The thought of strangers at a memorial gala wasn’t abnormal; people get in through connections that don’t show up for the day all the time.

But the feeling was relentless; new people at his parents’ memorial aside, he hated not knowing anything about them with the disappearances. How was he supposed to be sure that none of his guests would find themselves as victims?

“I hear that’s the princess of some island country, and her escort.” The socialite whispered to him when he asked who the two were.

“Princess?”

She nodded, “Princess Lillian of Magnolia, as her Father Bation calls her.”

“Princess Lillian and Father Bation?” Odd, he thought. “I’ve never heard of Magnolia before.”

“That’s why they’re here, I guess, meeting the rich to drive tourism to their country.

Colton nodded, turning his gaze back onto the pair who both catch it in theirs.

They cruised over, moments later, after wrapping up the conversation they had been in.

Colton watched them, noticing the slight limp in the Princess’s stride that added to what otherwise would have looked like she was floating over to him, while the commanding presence of Father Bation kept her steady with her on his arm like she was simply eye candy.

As the distance closed, his alarm sounded loud in his head like it was signaling an incoming tsunami instead of the pair who greeted him with rehearsed politeness that was too perfect not to be covering something going on beneath the surface.

“You must be Mr. White. We offer our sincerest condolences for your loss. Your parents were far too generous to have been lost so soon.” The man, Father Bation, began. “I am Father Bation, and this is Princess Lillian of Magnolia.”

“Father?” The word felt disgusting in his mouth, like it was coated in tar and soaked in a landfill.

“Yes, I work with the local convent on the central Island of Magnolia. It has been a true blessing from God.”

Colton nodded, washing down the taste with more champagne. “It must be for you to be all the way here, promoting the island, I assume.”

He smiled graciously, “Yes, it has fallen on hard times, and we have hit a roadblock in our services. It is still too poor a country to serve its people well, but the Princess is determined to lead her people away from their dark times, with my aid, of course.”

Colton watched him as he swayed to his own words like he was convincing himself of his involvement, and turned his attention to the young princess, “You are? That is very commendable. I’m sure your parents are proud of your work.”

She bowed her head in thanks, but Bation was the one to answer, “They would be, of course, if they were alive. She would be Queen if the laws of her country did not have a minimum age set.”

Colton did not acknowledge his words, but he did take note for the future. He wondered how young she was, where her guards were, if she was still a child, why a man who did not even claim her country as his home would be her sole escort in a gala they were not invited to. But he didn’t ask any of it; something told him she wouldn’t tell him if Father Bation was there, hovering over her shoulder like an eagle waiting to strike his prey.

“Can you talk, Princess?” Colton tilted his head to the side with the lopsided grin he used on his younger cousins when he knew he was going to ask them to break rules with him.

She smiled, falling for it the same way they did, briefly checking over her shoulder like he was gauging what his reaction would be, “I can speak,” she finally said, mirroring his grin, “No one cares to listen to it, though, not yet.”

Those two words held a contagious excitement that told him everything he needed to know about her. But not her situation, just that she had a plan.

Lillian was the name of one of the girls who went missing, permanently, from a neighboring state about three years ago. But that girl was from the streets in a neighborhood that would have taught a very different kind of elegance than the one she carried so effortlessly.

“Not everyone can see what’s right under their nose, my dear princess.”

The glimmer in her eye was subtle, like she caught the meaning Colton tried to send her way.

He didn’t know if she was the same Lillian from the reports, but it was clear to him that she was no ordinary princess, even if she wasn’t originally a “no good street-rat.”