Getting all the children out of the drain onto the streets was difficult - they whined and ran, assuming it to be a game. Harder still for Harry was trying to get Thief out: she snarled at the harsh sunlight and vanished underground again. Finally, Harry managed to drag her out and get a look at her in bright light.
She was prettier than he remembered - despite that the thing from the sewers was coated in grime and white as a ghost. Harry dragged her to the local river and, without warning, pushed her in.
Thief spluttered and splashed in the freezing water, not used to swimming; she struggled to the shallows and wiped dirty water out of her eyes. They sparkled in the sun as she dragged herself out. She smacked Harry over the head and trudged along the road.
Harry led her, and the children, to a police station. They all gaped at them: three ragged children; a filthy, animal-like girl and the boy who had vanished two days ago.
'I've returned three of the missing children. The fourth was killed by a...' Harry paused, trying to think up a plausible explanation. '...psychopathic murderer living in the sewers.'
'Who's she?' asked an officer, frowning at Thief. She proudly announced her name and Harry felt his heart sink.
'A thief...?' asked one in surprise. Thief unwittingly nodded.
'She lived in the sewers! Homeless, alone and hungry! She only took food from dumpsters!'
'They look like the clothes stolen yesterday,' another policeman calmly remarked. They cruelly handcuffed Thief and led her away.
'Harry?' Thief asked in confusion. 'Where are my children? Why am I going in here?' Harry had to fight back tears.
'Thief, I'm sorry... they'll give you food and give you a bath, and I'll find you a lawyer... it'll be okay. It will.' Thief gave a final, desperate and grieved look over her shoulder at Harry before she vanished around a corner. Harry swallowed the lump forming in his throat and looked around the now empty police office.
I got Thief arrested.
Harry decided it would be wise to leave before the press flooded in. He trudged home, took a long, hot shower and sat on the couch, flicking through the news. He absently stared at the screen as images flickered by. His mother came home, shrieked, and hugged her son. She promised him pizza for dinner and Harry smiled, but the news story had caught his attention.
'Police have arrested a girl from the sewers who mothered the missing children after she had rescued them from the 'monster' that had taken them in the first place.'
Harry sighed.
The news is always so depressing.
YOU ARE READING
Sewers
AdventureHarry is both shocked and horrified by the disappearance of his little cousin, Stephanie, the fourth child to go missing from his neighborhood area. He sets out to find her and enters a drain, greeted by a homeless and nameless girl living in the se...
