Chapter 276 - Two Hundred And Seventy-six: The Murderer
Ben was in a dilemma, what had he done? He was just trying to find out how a pup's metabolism worked and not become a father to one! How was it even possible to become a father to a pup? Perhaps if he was sexually active, there could be chances of him fathering a pup unknowingly - in his imagination.
What nonsense! He hadn't even had his first kiss - Ahh, right with Lia. No, that didn't count. Lawrence had made use of his body and he wasn't a willing participant in that kiss, maybe a little? Ugh, forget that.
It was exactly an hour after he had taken the pup to his room so his housekeeper didn't find out. That woman would die from the scare, thinking he had kidnapped a kid. And for once, Ben wasn't guilty of the crime - he had not done the kidnapping, rather the victim came to him willingly.
"Papa," the baby reached out his hands for a hug.
"Shhh," Ben hushed him, panicking. What if someone passes and hears him? Oh right, his room was soundproofed but still, there was the need to be careful.
"Papa," the baby's face fell before he burst into tears without warning.
"Shhh," Ben was alarmed and tried to shut the pup up. He felt like tearing his hairs out, he did not sign up for any of this - Maybe he did, but it wasn't supposed to be difficult.
"Alright, come to daddy," Ben had no choice but to carry the boy if he didn't want to risk being exposed.
Sadly for Ben, the wolf was a sly one who knew how to get what he wanted. The moment he came into Ben's arms, he shut up at once; Papa hugged him.
Fine, Ben decided to come clean. He would call Lia and tell her the truth- surely, she would kill him afterward but his conscience would be purged from the guilt.
However, Ben called and called, still there was no answer from Lia's side which made his brows furrowed. His goddess was always attentive to his calls.
Fine, Ben dropped a voicemail for her and decided to go to the pack by himself. Daniel would have mercy on his soul, he hoped so.
"Any success you'd turn back to your animal form, that would make carrying you about much easier," Ben said pleadingly to the wolf.
"This is stupid," He realized. What was the possibility this young pup understood what he was saying…
"Oh," Ben was stunned when the wolf shifted back to his wolf form. The boy understood him? This was incredible, he had just proven a theory: Werewolves' intellectual capacities were much better than humans. The children in his neighborhood couldn't even understand basic commands until they were a year plus old.
"Alright," Ben murmured, picking up his backpack from the table he had dropped it.
"We have to hide from humans who would take you away from me, understood?" He gestured the pup to go into the bag he had unzipped and spread wide open. One thing about these creatures was that they diminished in size once in their animal form.
It was late already and if he had been caught by the police leaving with an unidentified child at night, moreover to a woodsy place such as Kinney village, they would think he abducted the child - even if the pup called him daddy or not.
Ben frowned when the pup barked at him, in protest?
"This is the best way to leave undetected unless you want Papa to be gunned down by the police when we try to escape them," Ben made a gesture of a bullet piercing his heart and him dying comically.
Almost immediately, the pup ran into the backpack without objection.
"Good boy," He patted the pup on the head and went ahead to zip the backpack up - albeit leaving a bit of space so he could breathe in air.
"Don't worry, it will be over soon. Just endure a bit," Ben said to him as he wore his backpack on his shoulder
But the moment he turned around, he jolted into Alexa.
"Christ! Jesus! Have mercy on me!" She gave him quite a scare.
"You are one strange medium," Alexa chuckled, "You see ghosts every time, shouldn't you have gotten used to them already? "
"Not one who sneaks up on me times without number," Ben said through gritted teeth, "If you're here because of the investigation, then I'll have you know that tomorrow is the vigil and every student would be there and we would use that chance to -"
"I remembered something," Alexa notified him.
"You do," Ben was impressed.
"Yeah, the torture experience to be exact. For some reason, I can't fully make out his face- they're blurry to me - but he had sandy blonde hair".
Ben frowned when he couldn't hear more information and scratched his eyebrow, he had no idea how to relay this news to the ignorant ghost.
"Alexa, there are uncountable numbers of people in little town with sandy blonde hair plus the fact there are different shades of it, so a little more detail would be greatly appreciated," He stressed.
Alexa scratched her head awkwardly with a sheepish smile," I can't tell much about his physical appearance but there's something I could remember clearly, "
Ben drew closer, his ears itching to hear this great exposé.
"He was asking about supernatural creatures?"
"Supernatural creatures?" Ben didn't like the sound of that. That guy was a psychopath and with that kind of information, who knows what he intended to do with it?
"So what did you say to him?"
"I don't know"
"You told him you don't know?"
"No, I don't know because I can't remember what I told him," She replied.
"Alright, you did a good job, Alexa," he patted her hair but his hand went through the air instead.
"I can feel we're closer to solving this. With this insufficient information, we can search out anybody who asks about the supernatural tomorrow at the night vigil. Moreover, You'd be coming along."
"Really?" Her eyes brightened.
"Yeah, I'll give you the privilege of possessing my body so you could find whoever murdered you faster-"
"And I can communicate with Caroline?" she was delirious with Joy.
Ah right, the girl remembered her best friend.
"Probably, not" If anyone was going to go close to that witch, it wasn't with his body, "But on the bright side, you get to see your candle night vigil, that's an opportunity of a deathtime - many ghosts move on before such event is organized," Ben comforted her.
"What about a 'hi'?" She still pressed.
"Fine, just a 'hi' " Ben gave in.
"Alright, we'll talk about this once I'm back," he adjusted the weight of the pack back on his shoulder. Geez, for something that small, it sure weighed a ton.
"Can I come along?" She blinked her eyes and pouted her lips. Alexa was getting smarter - and naughtier.
"No, don't worry. I'm good," Ben assured her and left. He wasn't prepared to worry about a pup in his backpack and a ghost trailing him.
Without effort, Ben sneaked out of the house as usual and had successfully made it out of the large entrance gate when he bumped into someone with a startle.
"Jesus!" Ben screamed like a girl, although cupping his mouth at the last minute after realizing he might have woken the household up.
"Eric?" he was surprised to see who he ran into," What are you doing here by this time of the night?" Ben glanced down at his watch, it was eleven already.
"I-I was having a walk around the neighborhood to clear my head," Eric explained, pulling down his hood.
Ben might not be supernatural but being surrounded by one has taught him how to identify when a petty human was lying.
He took a glance at the boy, he was dressed up in dark clothes; black pants and a black sweatshirt with a hood. Under the cover of the night, one might think him a thief.
"Alright, spare me the lies, why are you truly here, Eric?" Ben stood with his jaw thrust up and arms on his waist in a stern manner and did not get to see the sharp glint in the boy's eyes.
"Excuse me?"
"I know the reason why you're here"
Eric was taken aback by his confession but showed no reaction aside from his jaw muscle ticking. Had the boy found out his motive? No, it can't be.
"Stay away from Lia or I'll make sure you regret the day you popped out from your mother's v@gina," Ben swore, " I know people like you and your motive, so stay off if you don't want to be exposed" He jabbed him on the chest and turned around to leave.
Gosh, he looked so cool doing that, Ben thought.
Ben had just taken a few steps when something clicked in his head, " Sandy blonde hair" and " Ask about the supernatural," He just realized that Eric had sandy brown hair and liked to ask about Lia, who was a supernatural. This couldn't be a coincidence
He gasped, Eric was the murderer?!
Sadly, Ben was about to pick out his phone from his pocket when he was knocked out from behind.