King's Harbor... Queen Height's District… Church Street, present day.
He made his way to the rooftop of 1401 Church St. it was a typical low income roach infested tenement, each of the fifteen floors dirtier than the last, when he opened the door leading to the roof it was 1:15 AM on Thursday morning, He walked slowly to the very center of the rooftop, there were several large empty appliance boxes covered with plastic tarps that several street people called home, all for the low, low price of a $5 a night bribe paid to the night desk manager so he would look the other way. Chapel always knew that if he needed information, the police would always try to hold something back, but he would always get the straight scoop from the street people living in the slums of downtown King's Harbor. He stood silently by an air duct as his eyes scanned through the darkness, the light rain slowly turned into snow, when behind him, he heard a very young voice calling his name.
He turned to face the voice as a small figure slowly appeared from the shadows, it was a smaller young boy of medium height, perhaps five foot two or three, he had short black spiked hair and looked to be in the neighborhood of twelve or thirteen years old, he was dressed in black cargo pants and wore a bulky black coat with a backpack. As he approached slowly, his eyes began darting back and forth nervously, pausing only briefly to look up and down at the imposing figure of Chapel. as he stepped from the shadows, Chapel could see that he was Asian.
"Wow, you are a big round eye, are you Chapel?" he asked.
He silently nodded, his eyes never leaving the form of the small boy."
"I'm Zero, Sable sent me, she said I could trust you." He said. "They say you've been away for a while, so you don't know what's been going on, on the streets. A lot of bad shit going down, big man."
"Like what?"
There are a couple of new crews in town, doing bad things, usually when the sun goes down. Pushing a new designer drug they call it Columbian Ice, it's really addictive, and deadly. A lot of bad shit, Big dog."
Chapel leaned forward, and gave him a concerned look.
"Zero, what can you tell me about this person they call The Candyman?"
Zero's face turned a light shade of pale.
"That dude that takes the children? Man, that some scary shit, he's like a ghost, he snatches up those kids and disappears into thin air, but those newspaper people got it wrong." He looked up at Chapel.
"How so?"
"Because they're saying he's taken what? seven kids?" Zero asked.
"Yes, seven so far." Chapel answered.
"So what? the five kids that he took from the homeless district between Beacon Hill and Tower Row don't count? Big Dog, I knew three of those kids personally, between the Candyman and these people that call themselves The Order of Shadows everyone on the street is scared shitless."
I need to find a friend of mine Zero, we haven't touched bases in a while, perhaps your friend Sable could reach out and get a message to him, he has a street crew that operates east of Luna Street, Pearl Street and Ironwood Avenue, His name is Azire Fleck, him and his people help street people, with protection, and they find them food and shelter."
He pulled a note pad from his coat and wrote down a note and handed it to Zero, along with a small bundle of twenty dollar bills.
"If you could, tell Sable if she can find Azire, tell him to come to the Delorian Street Cathedral, and ask for Father Michael McMillan, He'll know how to get in touch with me. And Zero?"
Zero raised his head to meet the concerned look on Chapel's face.
"I want you, Sable and your friends to steer clear of these people that call themselves The Order of Shadows, find someplace safe, and stay off of their radar, and if they are who I think they are, they are very dangerous, I will be dealing with them as soon as we nail down The Candyman. Be safe, my young friend." He told him.
He retraced his footsteps back from where he was, all the way back to where the first child was taken from outside the homeless district to the south of Quarry Street. As he studied the area a very important thought came to him, it was late Thursday afternoon when he had to contact Delmar Eckley. He carefully studied the outside of the building as he had with the other six locations, and he determined that the victims were not at all random, the Candyman knew his surroundings and had been studying his prey before taking them at just the right moment. He knew when and where to strike and when the child would be at their most vulnerable. He made his way back to the rooftop just before it started snowing. the Candyman had walked these very halls and knew them very well, he would be returning here there was still some missing information that he would be needing to track down, but it would have to wait for the morning of Friday the 12th. He needed to return to the Delorian Street Cathedral.
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