CHAPTER 45: THE FOOTAGE
Narration
Frank is sitting at his desk in the police department, going over the clues they’ve gathered. Jones enters his office in a hurry. Whatever it is, Jones seems very anxious to inform Frank about it.
“Frank, you gotta see this,” he tells him urgently.
A minute later, Frank goes into a dark room. The TV is running, but whatever is playing seems to be on pause. The paused video is black and white. The shot is a slanted angle of the University’s hallway.
“Check this out,” Jones says while grabbing the remote.
He fast-forwards through the video. Speedy images of students pass in and out of sight. Eventually, the multitudes disappear and only one person remains. It’s a young woman.
“Doesn’t she look familiar?” Jones asks Frank.
“Iva?” Frank thinks out loud.
“Bingo,” Jones replies. “But watch this,” he says while hitting the play button.
Frank watches his timid niece, with no sound, glancing at both ends of the hallway. He can tell she’s scared by the way her body is rocking back and forth. He continues to watch as she ducks to the ground. Then he sees two animals, one tiger and one wolf, jumping in midair and start to attack one another.
“Hold on one damn second….what the hell?” Frank blurts out shockingly.
He watches as the tiger thrust the wolf into a classroom door.
“Jesus Christ!” Frank blurts out.
“You think that’s something, watch this,” Jones says.
He fast-forwards through the video and presses play again. They both watch a black lion enter a classroom. A moment later, three kids go inside the classroom shortly after the lion.
“Iva ran into the classroom. A wolf knocked the damn door off its hinges,” Jones informs. “I have never seen anything remotely close to this.”
They continue to watch the footage until they see her with three young adults, two girls and one boy, leaving the class.
“And there she goes,” Jones says as he pauses the video footage.
He captures the image of Iva getting away with Maria, Eric, and Jessica.
“Hold on, zoom in,” Frank commands.
Jones presses a button which focuses closer on the group. A light clicks on in Frank’s mind.
“I know those kids. I know all of them.”
“I guess we have a lot of questions to ask,” Jones verifies.
“A hell of a lot,” Frank confirms. “Who else knows about this?”
“Just us.”
“Keep this between me and you, until we know what we’re dealing with here.”
“Alright, what’s our first stop?” he asks Frank.
“First stop is bringing my niece in for questioning.”
Frank turns and leaves the office in a hurry. Jones follows his lead…