SOFT

CHAPTER 1: MISSING

A boy stepped out into the night, the darkness enveloped him like a thick blanket, obscuring his vision and sending shivers down his spine. The only sound that broke the eerie silence was the rustle of leaves under his feet as he made his way forward, guided only by the faint glow of the distant streetlights. He entered a house. He walked inside a room where a person in his twenties was looking outside his window.

He stood beside him and asked, "Ace, why did you call at this time? Anything urgent?"

"Clark, you heard about the new head of police in the town?" Ace said while looking outside the window.

"You asked me to come here at midnight to tell me about this?" Clark said loudly. 

Ace smiled and rubbed his hands.

At the police station, a man was smoking a cigarette in a room. There were several files in front of him on the table. The room's door opened and a police officer entered the room. He saluted the man and stood in front of him.

"Come sit," the man said while pointing toward the couch.

"Good evening, sir," the police officer greeted.

"No need for sir. You can call me Harper. I am now in charge of the police of this whole city."

"Yes, sir. All the police stations of this city are now under your command," the police officer said.

"What's your name officer?" Harper asked.

"It's Jason, sir."

"Just call me Harper. So tell me about the ongoing cases."

"Right now, there are some small ongoing cases like bribery or theft. Nothing extreme," Jason said.

"All the cases including the small ones need to be taken seriously. The previous head of the police was not that much involved in the cases but I will be involved in every case. I will be reviewing all these cases whether they are small or large. "

"I didn't mean to say that. I was just saying that everything's under control. You need not to worry. There is a need to worry if the cases are of extreme level like that of Tom and Fred," Jason handed over two files to Harper.

Harper opened the first file and went through it, "I heard about these two cases. They were all over the news. If I remember correctly, Tom Wilson used to kidnap his victims, lock them, and torture them inside a room. He was released because he had multiple personality disorder. His status is written unknown but I know that he was killed by someone. The police couldn't find the person who did it."

"It seems you have studied these cases in-depth," Jason sounded astonished.

"You need to go into the depth of cases, then only you can understand the case," Harper closed the first file and opened the second one, "Who doesn't remember this one? This case of Fred was full of madness. He would kidnap the people, chain them, and then cut them to tell people what the real pain is."

Jason took the files from Harper, "His sadist father has now completed his sentence and is out of prison."

"Is he not dangerous anymore?"

"Doesn't seem so. He passed his medical checkup and he covered his whole sentence without any problem," Jason said, "These two cases have terrified people of this city but the good thing is that nothing happened in the last few months and I hope that nothing like this happens again."

"Good to know. I repeat that I am not like your previous head. These two extreme cases happened and he was nowhere to be seen," Harper said.

After a brief silence, Harper asked, "So tell me, are you married?"

"My wife is no more. She died of cancer some months ago. I have a three-year-old daughter. And sir, about you?"

"Sorry to hear about your wife. Well, I have bad luck when it comes to girls. All the girls who came into my life never loved or cared for my presence so you know the answer," Harper smiled.

"It will be nice working under you, sir. I must leave now. It's getting late," Jason left the building.

At midnight, Harper was at the headquarters when his mobile rang. He picked up the call, "What happened?"

After a few minutes, Jason reached the headquarters. He was tensed.

"Jason, be strong. Everything will be alright."

"I don't know how this happened," Jason yelled.

"You need to be strong. Tell me what happened?"

"I reached home at around ten. I ate dinner with my daughter and then we went to sleep. At around eleven forty-five, I woke to drink water but I noticed that my daughter was not on the bed. I stood up and looked around but I couldn't find her. I looked all over the place but there was no trace of her. I don't know where she is."

"I have ordered a search team. They will find your daughter and the culprit also," Harper said, "I think you should take a rest. You please go home. I will update if anything happens."

Jason looked toward Harper and gave him the picture of his daughter, "I want her back."

Harper dialed a number and shouted, "I want the details fast."

In an empty dark house, a man wearing a gown walked toward a room. He opened the door and peeked inside the room with a wide creepy smile on his face.

At the police headquarters, Harper received a phone call. He picked up the call and was shocked. He cut the call and looked toward his assistant.

"What happened, sir? Everything alright?"

Harper said in disbelief, "Three more children of ages two to three years are missing."

Inside the room of the empty dark house, there were four children, all of different ages varying from two years to three years. The man walked toward them and smiled while looking at them. He opened the gown and sat naked in front of them.

In the police headquarters, Harper was attending phone calls related to the case. An officer came and gave three pictures to Harper, "Sir, these are the pictures of the three children who are missing."

He pinned all the pictures of the missing children on the board and looked at them. His phone rang and he picked up the phone, "What is it?"

After listening, he shouted, "What the fuck are you talking about? What the hell is going on?"

He cut the call in anger. Harper took a long breath and said to his assistant, "Two more children are now missing. The total figure of missing children is now six. At first, I thought that the officer's daughter was kidnapped by some culprit who might have wanted to take revenge for something but this case is now getting out of hand. A psycho is on the loose."

CHAPTER 2: CHILDREN

"Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, it's six. The total number of children missing is six," Harper shouted at the officers on call.

"Easy, sir," Jason said in a lower voice.

"Oh Jason, you are here. Here, the number of missing children is increasing and these stupid officers are not able to find anything," Harper said while comforting himself.

"Yes, I heard that more children have gone missing that's why I came to see you. I'm getting worried."

"Jason, don't worry. This one will be caught," Harper said while tapping Jason's shoulder, "Wait a second. You told me that Fred's father was released from prison and in the report it was mentioned that he was a sadistic psycho who used to torture and cut Fred's skin. What if he's behind all this? What if he's torturing these children? I will send an officer to keep track of his movements," Harper said with certainty.

Jason thought about something, looked toward Harper, and gazed at him for a few seconds.

Harper looked at him and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Jason left the headquarters.

In the empty dark house, the naked man looked at the six children crying. He slapped all of them one by one, and shouted, "You are making it wet. I want it dry, you idiots."

The next day, as Harper was getting ready for work, someone knocked at his door. He went to the door, opened it and someone knocked him with a rod.

Harper's eyes opened. He felt a little pain in his head. His hands and legs were clamped and a cloth was put in his mouth. His mobile was kept on the table on the side. In front of him was a naked person sitting with a red mask on his face and a headphone mic with a voice modulator.

Harper tried to say something but couldn't due to the cloth in his mouth. The naked person said in a grave tone, "You don't need to say anything. I know you want all the children but I cannot give them to you. Those children have that thing. That thing is precious. I desire it at any expense."

Harper again tried to say something but in vain. The naked person continued, "I will get more of them."

The naked man kept looking at Harper for the next three minutes and didn't say anything. After watching him battle to let loose, the naked man took out the cloth from his mouth. Harper took a long breath and after he got stable, he shouted, "You piece of shit. What are you trying to do? Where are the children? If anything happens to them, I will kill you."

The naked man kept looking at Harper. He picked up the cloth and put it in his mouth. Harper struggled and the naked man left the room.

The naked man entered the next room. Harper tried to free himself and let loose his right hand. He heard the naked man's faded singing coming from the next room. He freed his left hand and started untying his legs. The singing became louder. He got worried and freed his legs. He took out the cloth from his mouth. He took his mobile from the table, called a number, and ran toward the door. He pushed the door but it was locked from the other side. He kicked the door once but nothing happened. He took some steps back and ran toward the door and leaped on the door. The door opened with a bang. The room had no window and a red light was on. The naked man was without the red dog mask. His hands were covered in what appeared to be a fluid. There were portions of something lying on the table and he was snipping the same thing with scissors.

Harper glimpsed at the ground and to him, everything appeared in slow motion. He shook his head and shouted, "You sick bastard."

He took out the gun and aimed it at the naked man, "Enough of your madness. Keep your hands behind your head and lie on the floor."

Rather than obeying the orders, the naked man tried to run but Harper clutched him by his neck and slam him on the floor. The police officers reached the spot and brought him to the station.

At the station, the naked man was wrapped in a gown and was shut in a private cell. His arms and legs were cuffed and he was sitting on a chair. A policeman came to Harper and passed him a file, "Sir, here's the report."

He inspected the report and he was horrified, "What the fuck!"

He went to the cell, locked the door, and revealed the file, "What have you done? Do you know what we found?"

"Harper, I found a solution that I had been looking for so many years. I have been confronting this problem since boyhood."

Harper interrupted, "I am not interested in your absurd backstory. You psychos always have an absurd backstory to defend your grounds but I will not let that happen. Thanks to this report, it's affirmed that you have kidnapped fifteen children till now. We found fifteen distinct blood specimens from that room. What the fuck were you even doing?"

Harper took a glass of water and then resumed, "There is a police officer whose wife died some months ago and had a daughter. She was kidnapped. She was such a sweet doll. Her father, the police officer loved her very much. Well, that was what I used to believe but it looks like that was not the case because that father, that police officer is sitting in front of me, and from his house, we found fifteen specimens and one of the specimens is of her daughter. What do you say, Jason?"

CHAPTER 3: REASON

Jason grinned and said, "Remove this gown. It's irritating."

Harper didn't do anything.

Jason yelled, "Remove it. It's irritating."

"First, tell me why did you do it?"

"I wanted comfort, that's why," Jason said in a discomforting tone and tried to free his hands.

"You are not going to get free. Tell me what you were saying about the comfort?"

Jason looked at Harper in fury, "Let me tell you a tale about a boy. There was a boy. His skin was susceptible from childhood due to which he hated wearing clothes made of synthetic. He also didn't wear sweaters, sweatshirts, tight clothes, and jeans. Wearing them was painful and unbearable for him and to him, it felt like they were pinching his skin. So, he started wearing soft garments. He adored soft garments but there was a bitch who never permitted him to wear what he wanted. She only longed for her ego to be gratified," Jason said in a high tone.

"So what then?"

Jason resumed, "Then what? That boy killed her. One night, when she was asleep that boy tied her and made her wear all the sweatshirts and sweaters one by one. He made her suffer till she stopped breathing."

Harper kept taking notes.

Jason smiled, "That boy's custody was provided to his aunt. His aunt adored him too much and would provide him with garments of his choice. Now, he had the freedom to wear anything he desired. He would wear loose cotton garments but he was still not pleased. His aunt had a two-year-old baby. That boy used to sleep in the same room with the baby and one night, the boy felt the cheeks of the baby. He moved his hand on the cheeks and the belly of the baby. That night, he came to know what could please him."

Harper took a sip of water from the bottle. Jason looked at Harper as he took the sip, "Have you ever touched a baby?"

Harper didn't say anything for a moment and then said softly, "Continue with that boy's story."

Jason smiled again, "The boy was fascinated by the texture and softness of the baby's skin. He found himself drawn to its delicate nature, marveling at its purity and innocence. He grabbed the baby's throat and killed the baby. Then, he took a knife, cut the baby's skin, and rubbed his cheeks on it. The boy got an orgasm as it was so soft. It was what he was searching for."

"Then what happened to his aunt? Didn't she report the boy to the police?" Harper asked.

"That boy was witty. He cleaned his fingerprints from the knife. He made cuts on his body, went to his aunt's room, and put the knife in her hand. She was asleep. He then called the police saying that her aunt had slaughtered her baby and tried to slaughter him too and now she had gone to sleep. The police arrived, examined around, and considered what a seventeen-year-old boy said. The fingerprints matched and she was awarded life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Then, the boy was sent to an orphanage where he survived with those same loose cotton garments that his aunt bought for him. Once, he was adopted and got outside the orphanage, his obsession for the skin grew and so did his desire to possess it. But he had to be aware of the police. For being outside the police radar, he started preparing for the police exams, cleared it, and joined the police. Well, his adoptive father was in the police so it was easy for the boy to enter the police. That boy had a dream to make a suit made entirely of skin. He started abducting babies from the nearby localities. He would carefully remove the baby's skin from its tiny body and would sew the skin. He would kidnap the babies till the skin requirement for his suit was fulfilled."

Harper interrupted, "But police caught him before he could fulfill this nightmare. The sad thing is that he even faked the abduction of his daughter because she was already slaughtered by her father."

Jason smiled. 

"And what about that red-colored dog mask."

Jason didn't say anything and glanced around.

"You fucking psycho. You even slaughtered your daughter. You peeled the skin of all your victims for a ridiculous garment," Harper yelled.

Jason interrupted, "Don't call it ridiculous."

"Are you serious? Do you even know what you are sounding like? I know that mentally ill bastard boy about whom you are talking about is none other than you. I hope you get the death penalty," Harper yelled and left the cell.

Harper looked at the officers, "The case is closed. I don't know what the fuck was this."

At night, Jason was lying in his cell. The lights were dim when he heard the door being opened. He saw a shadow.

"Who's there?" Jason asked.

A man wearing a black coat and pants with a black hat on his head walked toward him. Jason made an effort to glimpse at his face but couldn't as the man was wearing a devil mask.

"What do you want?"

The masked man stopped, looked at Jason, and said in a heavy voice, "I'd be the volcano burning them with fire. I'd be an ocean that takes cyclonic attire. The days should be dark, dark as mud. The nights must shadow rivers of blood"

"What?"

The masked man continued, "I'd be the butcher slitting their throat. Everyone must be a slaughtered goat. Everyone must be afraid of my knife. I will surely take away everyone's life.

Jason got tensed. He didn't say anything and couldn't do anything as his hands and legs were restrained. The masked man took out a knife from his pocket and grabbed Jason's head. He put his knife on Jason's throat and slowly started slashing his throat, "By hearing my voice fear must be instilled. The blood of bloody bodies must be spilled. By watching them all die I'd be thrilled. The people of the world must all be killed."

As the blood rushed out, the masked man licked the blood from the knife. He took his blood-stained knife and walked away.

The next morning, Clark drove to Ace's house. Ace was looking at his laptop.

He stood beside him and asked, "Now what?"

"The police caught a psycho who would slice children's skin," Ace said while shutting down his laptop, "This will not cease here. More psychos will come and more killings will occur," Ace looked toward Clark.

"Why are you saying this?"

Ace didn't say anything and stood up. He glanced outside the window and smiled.