Nearly the entire city was quiet. It was well after midnight and the moon was high in the sky. Being early summer, the nights were always pleasantly cool while the days were comfortably warm. Tonight was no exception, and with a slight breeze carrying the cool air, it made the city a lovely place to be right now.
It wasn’t an extremely big city, but by no means was it a small one. It had such fine shopping and dining and entertainment, as well, that it attracted plenty of tourists. A visitor in particular was the center of attention this night, but he wasn’t exactly attracting good attention. Dozens of guards were roaming the city, armed with swords and magic spells, looking for him. They knew two things about him, the first being; he was a vicious, dangerous demon with unknown limits of power and two; he was a child.
Two hours ago, a small figure was spotted standing over a lump of flesh. Upon closer inspection it was obvious that the flesh was that of a dismembered man and that the figure was a boy, with jet black claws and skin, blond hair and striking red eyes. Blood covered his claws and teeth and when the guards approached him, he laughed and ran away. Now every guard in the city had been informed and was on a manhunt. A quiet manhunt, as they did not want to inform the public and cause a panic unless they couldn’t catch him. He was dangerous, of course, but hundreds of citizens running about would only serve to make finding him impossible.
They separated into teams of three and searched the main streets. Not finding him then, they searched the back streets. It wasn’t until a team searched an alley that they found him. Blond hair, claws, bright bloodied clothes. Quickly they called reinforcements, and by the time they got there, the three men had been stabbed and killed. Then the reinforcements were slaughtered. It wasn’t until they gathered a group of eight guards that they cornered the demon.
The law for demons who trespassed in human territory was very clear; kill on sight and take no prisoners, for demons were far too unpredictable and powerful to keep alive. So that is what these guards tried to accomplish. They stabbed, swung and shot spells at him, and he evaded them easily, even laughing at them while he counterattacked and killed them one by one.
Then a guard used an elemental spell. They had tried fire, wind and earth spells on the demon, all in vain. But this time the guard used an ice spell. He pulled water from the nearby fountain and sprayed the demon with it. Upon contact, the water froze solid around its waist and neck.
The demon boy screeched, fell to his knees and stayed that way. The guards took their chance and pierced him with a sword through the stomach. Blood, thick, dark blood, flooded from the wound and into the alley. The boy twitched and clawed violently at the ice, and as the guards were preparing to behead him—a common demon extermination method—it broke off his body and he leaped out of the way.
“It’s free! Kill it!” the sword wielding guard yelled.
“It’s injured and cornered. This alley is a dead end. Where’s it going to go?” the guard who had used the ice spell asked. He was already preparing to use it again, when the boy surprised everyone by standing straight, jumping at the wall, and scurrying up like a lizard. The men were speechless. They separated again, searching for him, but they wouldn’t find him again, not tonight.
The demon boy crawled along the roof of another building he had jumped to. He gripped the wooden roof with his claws, leaving holes, and promptly coughed up blood. He was running out of energy. His claws dulled and shrank until they disappeared completely; his teeth became round and the black streak in his yellow hair turned bleach white. He had the appearance of a normal boy covered in his own and other people’s blood. He wretched one more time before losing his grip and consciousness. With an odd sound he tumbled off the roof and into the trash cans below.
* * * * *
The couple was young. He was a novice magician of 26 and she, an aspiring teacher of 24. They had known each other since childhood and had been living together for two years. His name was Cole Maine and hers was Marie Thach, soon to be Marie Maine, as they had gotten engaged three weeks ago. He proposed one night when the two were walking home from an opera quite spontaneously, so unplanned that he didn’t even have a ring. She said yes anyway, and the two had been blissfully happy ever since, planning their wedding for three months from now.
This evening, they were resting well from an eventful day at the jeweler. The both of them were fitted for wedding rings and she finally picked an engagement ring that she thought was the most beautiful gem in the world. It was not a diamond, as they were not a rich couple, but it was a beautiful garnet stone which shone bright red in the sunlight. Their wedding bands were both set to be inscribed, too, with each other’s name and a small line about love. Everything was going perfectly well for the two, and they often talked about how many kids they wanted to have after they got married.
As they slept together soundly, Marie was woken up by a rolling and crashing noise outside their window. She shook her fiancé and whispered his name. He jerked awake and she told him to check outside.
“It was probably just a wild animal,” he grumbled, pulling the covers over his head.
“What if it’s a burglar? Cole!” she shook him harder.
“Fine! I’ll go check...”
He dragged himself out of bed, put on his robe and sandals, grabbed the pistol they kept for home defense and left to investigate. Marie gripped the covers and rubbed her eyes, waiting nervously for the sound of the door shutting or the sound of a gun firing, but neither happened. Instead, she heard Cole’s voice calling for her to come see.
“What is it?” she shouted from bed.
“Just get out here!” he yelled back.
She slipped her slippers on, pulled a blanket around her shoulders and walked out the back door of their one story house, and immediately saw what Cole wanted her to see. Their trash cans, two tall metal bins which were usually neatly set up against the house, were knocked down and trash was splayed all over their backyard, but neither of them really noticed that. They both stared at one thing. On the ground, where the trash cans used to be, was a small body. A child’s body. Blood pooled around it and it did not move.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
Cole walked closer to the scene and put a hand to the child’s neck.
“Who could have done such a horrible thing?” she pulled the blanket tighter and began to tear up.
“Marie,” Cole said.
“A child! Who would kill a poor child?”
“Marie.”
“Why would they just drop the kid off a roof? Doesn’t anyone have any regard for life anymore? I can’t believe it!”
“Marie!”
“What?!”
“He’s still alive. Help me get him into the house.”
She blinked. The blanket immediately fell from her hands and she rushed over to him.
“Why didn’t you say so sooner? Just tell me to shut up if it’s important!” she said.
“You’d get mad if I did,” he said.
Cole lifted the boy in his arms and followed behind Marie as she ran into the house and set up a pillow and blanket on the couch. He set the boy down gently and while Marie drew warm water, Cole changed him into clothes his nephew had left behind a month ago. They bandaged his wounds and washed him and sat for the rest of the night contemplating just what on earth had happened to him. It wasn’t every day a child rolled off your roof and landed in your garbage with gruesome sword wounds. Eventually, they fell asleep on the couch opposite to him, just as the sun was rising.
When they awoke several hours later, the boy was still fast asleep. His condition had improved slightly, but they had no idea when he would wake up. After washing them, Marie got her thread and needle and mended the clothes he wore before. They were odd, indeed. His pants cut off at the knees and were a bright, lime green. His shirt was long-sleeved with black pinstripes against the same shade of green, and to top it off, he had a sky blue sweater vest.
“He’s probably foreign,” Cole said. “This fabric isn’t made anywhere around here.”
“Maybe he got separated from his parents while they were visiting,” Marie suggested, currently mending the vest, which had a large rip in the front.
“How did he manage to get stabbed and left on our roof, though?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”
Cole watched the boy and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “What if he’s a thief?”
“A thief! Why would he be a thief?” Marie asked.
“Think about it. Suppose he was caught stealing something, got attacked by the person he stole from or a guard, and climbed up the side of the house to hide up there.”
“Or he was the victim of a robbery.”
“Why would he go through the trouble of climbing a house if he was hurt and innocent? You think he’d knock on the door for help.”
“Maybe the bad guy was chasing him,” she said.
“So he hid on the roof?”
She shrugged. “We could speculate all day, but we won’t know for sure until we ask him.”
“If he wakes up. That was a pretty nasty wound,” he frowned.
“The medicine should be helping.”
Time passed and Marie finished mending his clothes. They looked brand new, with some minor stains that couldn’t be washed out, and were folded neatly and set aside on the end table at the head of the couch. The only thing they could do now was wait.

* * * * *
The city had a council to make important decisions. It was made up of four people: a retired guard; an old, wise magician; a scientist who studied demons and other unnatural beings and a woman who knew the legal books like the back of her hand. Every major decision the mayor made was passed through them before approval, and they knew all the inside information before anyone else did. They had been informed of the demon boy when he was first spotted and they were now trying to set out plans to find him. Arguments quickly formed as tension rose.
“If we send our guards looking without being prepared, we’ll have nothing but dead young men. We need to call back the investigation and wait until we know what we’re up against,” the old guard Jacob said. He was just out of his fifties and was gray, but he held his strong frame and demeanor from his younger days.
“We cannot sit here and do nothing while that demon finds its next victim,” Eli the magician said. He was an old, old, hairy man. He had once been in the military, combating against strong magical enemies. Now he spent each day protecting the city he grew up in.
“Our guards will be slaughtered if they aren’t prepared! We lost too many good men last night!” Jacob said.
“Calm down, please,” the scientist, a mousy looking woman with brown hair named Sadie said. She stood up at the table and cleared her throat. “I’ve been researching, studying, the bodies of the guards and the man that was first found.” Without being asked to continue, she continued. “The first body, as you know, was that of Abe Nole, the prominent blacksmith. His body was very, very deformed, and I discovered teeth marks. We appear to have a demon on our hands that eats human beings.”
“Hmm. How do we stop it?” Jacob asked.
Sadie breathed and sat down again. “I don’t have enough information, I don’t know,” she said.
“That only furthers the fact that the demon is dangerous and must be stopped at all costs. We should send our men to find it and kill it,” Eli said.
Jacob hit the table with his fist. “We need to know more!”
“We do know that the demon showed a sign of weakness to ice spells, according to a guard, but we cannot confirm it until another conflict with the demon,” Sadie said.
“You know powerful ice spells, Eli. Why don’t you join our guards on foot and search for it?” Jacob said.
“Certainly, however I’m sure seeing an old magician wandering the streets aimlessly would only alarm people,” Eli said.
Jacob sneered. “Yet a mass of guards wandering aimlessly is any better?”
Eli defended himself, Jacob kept up his opposition and Sadie sat in her chair, not saying a word. This went on for a few moments longer before Eve spoke up.
Eve was a walking, talking legal encyclopedia with many years of experience. She also served as a mediator and referee when a decision could not be reached, such as it was now. She was a tall woman with curly blonde hair and a strong expression on her face.
“Jacob, while I find your respect and devotion to the brave guards of this city noble, you must realize that this is a dire situation in which we cannot allow time to escape us. Eli, you understand the need to find this demon, but Jacob is right in the fact that we cannot just blindly send our guards on a wild goose chase. Too much guard activity can startle and confuse the citizens and we cannot have that.”
She stepped closer to Sadie and thumbed through the file she had set on the table.
“We will trust in the guard’s words that the demon is weak to ice. That in mind, we will put together a team of thirty or so guards, all trained in elemental magic.”
Jacob frowned. “How are we going to find this murderer?”
Eve tapped the table with her fingernail a few times, thinking. Then she thumbed through the file once more.
“The demon was injured by a guard’s sword. It couldn’t have gotten far in the few hours it has been missing. We will send a troupe of guards undercover to check out every alley, ditch and hole in this city. There’s also the chance it could have snuck into a house and hidden, or that people took it in. We’ll have the guards ask around,” she said.
“How will we explain this to the residents?” Eli asked.
“The description of the demon was that he appeared to be a small boy, of ten or twelve, with blond hair. We can say he was the son of an important family and that he went missing, so every house must be checked. It’s worth a shot,” Eve said.
“The description also noted that he had claws, fangs and blood red eyes. Who would think that was a normal boy and take it in?” Jacob asked.
Sadie coughed. “A large number of demons can possess bodies or change their appearances to look more normal. It is rare that they look completely human in their disguises, but we don’t know what kind of demon we’re dealing with, so it could be possible that it changed itself, or maybe not,” she said.  
“We will assume that it can. If it didn’t have such an ability and someone saw it looking like it did last night, we would have heard about it by now. Interview every child that fits the description, and every child that seems to be acting suspicious. If the parents object we will explain that it is vitally important to talk to the children, because they may have spotted the missing boy or even talked to him. That’s simple enough for our guards to keep straight,” Eve said.
The room was quiet for a few moments as the other three thought it over. Then one by one, they all agreed to her plan. A large group was formed and kept ready to leave at a moment’s notice and another, small group of undercover guards were sent to search the city, while another group of uniformed guards were sent to ask questions and knock on doors. Eve, Jacob, Eli and Sadie all waited dutifully for their plan to get results.
* * * * *
Marie was cooking dinner in the kitchen and Cole was reading a book on magic in the bedroom when the boy woke up in the living room. He twitched and rolled a little as he came to, opening his bright red eyes and waiting for his vision to adjust. He blinked several times as his eyes came into focus. He was in a room, in a warm room, with the sound of fire crackling near him and water running nearby. He stared at the ceiling until he heard something metal clang and the water shut off. He looked around; the fireplace was several feet away, burning a very low flame, and he was on a couch. He blinked again.
“Oh goodness, you’re awake!” a female voice shrieked. He shot up from the couch like a jack in the box, felt an unbelievable head rush and crashed into the bookshelf.
“Oh no! Cole, get in here!” Marie yelled, running to the boy. She pulled him up from the book pile and brushed the hair out of his face. He stared up at her.
Cole stumbled into the room, wielding a book. He saw the situation and set it on the coffee table, kneeling to the boy with his fiancée.
“What happened here?” he asked.
“He got up too fast and fell into the books,” Marie said.
“Are you okay, kid?” he asked the boy.
The child blinked. He was utterly and completely confused.
“Uh,” was the only sound that came from him, and then he was silent, staring up at the adults. His eyes traveled down Marie’s arm, and when he realized that she was holding him, he jerked violently and pushed her away.
“It’s okay, shh, calm down,” she said softly. She let him go and watched as he hobbled to his feet, putting his hands out to catch himself if he fell. He appeared to be stable.
“He looks fine,” Marie smiled.
Cole waved a hand in his face. “Can you talk, kid?”
“Don’t call him ‘kid,’ that’s rude!” Marie said.
“What else do I call him? We don’t know his name.”
“That’s true...” Marie set a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “What is your name?”
The boy gripped her arm tightly. He swallowed and smiled at her. “My name is... Miles,” he said.
“Miles! That is an adorable name,” she said. She ran her other hand through his hair gently, pushing stray strands behind his ear. He blinked.
“Where did you come from? How did you get here?” Cole asked.
“Honey! Don’t bombard him with questions yet. He’s probably starving and thirsty. Are you?” Marie asked.
“Very hungry,” the boy smiled.
She held his hand and led him into the kitchen. He sat at their small dining table while she scooped soup into a bowl. He sucked down the full glass of water and slammed it down onto the table, creating an unnoticeable crack in the bottom of the cup. He sat perfectly still and stared at Marie as she set the bowl in front of him.
“Do you like soup?” she asked.
“I like meat,” the boy said. “Is there meat in this?”
“There’s chicken,” she smiled.
His gaze shifted from her to the bowl. “Bird?” he asked. “I like bird. Bird is my favorite. Well, second favorite.”
He lifted the spoon out from the soup and stared at it. He put it in his mouth and bit down, then spit it out and gagged.
“Metal,” he said. “Why did you put metal in it?”
“Is he dumb?” Cole asked, raising an eyebrow. He had been watching from the living room the whole time, and he definitely wasn’t impressed by the boy.
“Cole! That’s a mean thing to say. Maybe he just doesn’t know,” Marie said. She turned to the boy, who had gone back to staring at her, and picked up the spoon. She dipped it into the soup and held a spoonful up to his face.
“The chicken is in the bowl. You eat it with a spoon like this,” she said.
He stared at her, then gripped the wooden bowl with both hands and held it to his mouth, gulping it. Once he finished, he slammed the bowl down and exhaled.
“He must have been starving,” Marie said. “Do you want more?”
The boy shook his head. “Not enough meat,” he said. She set the bowl and cup in the sink and she and Cole sat at the table with him. He only stared, eyes darting back and forth between them.
“How do you feel, Miles?” Marie asked.
He touched where his wound was and nodded. “Better,” he said.
“Do you remember what happened to you?” Cole asked.
He smiled. “No,” he said.
“We found you on the ground. You fell off our roof. You don’t remember why you were up there?” he asked.
“No,” the boy said.
Cole frowned. “Do you remember how you got stabbed?”
“Nope!” he smiled.
“You have to remember something!” Cole yelled.
“Calm down,” Marie said, putting a hand over his. She turned to the boy and smiled gently at him. “Where are your parents, honey? Do you know where you came from?” she asked.
“I’m getting bored,” Miles said, “And hungry.”
Marie sighed. “Do you want more soup?”
“No,” he grinned.
“What would you like?”
Miles stood up abruptly and kicked the chair behind him. He grabbed the table and pulled himself over it towards the two, but when he reached them, he hesitated and twitched and coughed, falling off the table.
“His wound reopened!” Marie said, kneeling to him. “Get me a towel and more bandages!”
Cole brought her a dry towel and sanitized wraps and knelt with her.
“There’s something wrong with this kid. What did he just try to do there?” he said, passing her the towel.
Marie lifted the boy’s shirt and put pressure on his wound with the towel as he writhed about in her arms. She glared at Cole. “Now is not the time to talk,” she said.
They got the bleeding to stop and dressed his wound once more, laying him on the couch again. He stared warily at them for the rest of the night, not saying a word, and he didn’t fall asleep until after they went to bed.

Cole woke up at sunrise the next day for work. As Marie slept, he washed, got dressed in nice clothes and ate breakfast of toast and jam. On his way out the door, he stopped. When he woke up, the boy was still sleeping. Now he sat straight up on the couch and was staring at him.
“Good morning... uh, Miles,” Cole said. The boy didn’t move or say anything. Cole rubbed the back of his head.
“How do you feel?” he asked.  
Miles didn’t say anything.
Cole sighed and opened the front door. “I’m off to work, then,” he said.
“I don’t like you,” Miles said.
He eased back into the house. “What?”
“I don’t like you,” he repeated and smiled.
Cole paused. “You are a strange, strange kid,” he said, and shut the door behind him.
Miles jumped off the couch and looked down at his clothes. He was wearing pajamas, which was a long sleeved shirt and baggy pants made of thin material. He waved his arms around a few times, watching the fabric sway. It reminded him of someone. He pushed on his injury and winced a little, and was convinced that he needed more time to heal.
He looked around the house, poked his nose in a few books and tore out some pages, then as he was about to investigate the rest of the house, his stomach growled. Instead of heading to the kitchen, he headed to the bedroom. He pushed the door open slowly and silently, peeking inside. He located the bed and saw a lump under the covers. The boy grinned, walked closer on his toes and held his breath, being as quiet as he possibly could be. He stood at the edge of the bed and held his hand up. That hand turned sickly green with sharp nails and scales. He raised it above the lump in the covers and thrust it down, piercing through the blanket... and that was it. He blinked and exhaled, pulling the blanket down and seeing nothing but a mess of sheets. His hand went back to normal and he looked all around the room. He knew she was here somewhere. He could smell her violet perfume and the scent of her skin.
He crept to the bathroom door and leaned against it, putting an ear to it. He heard footsteps and shuffling around, and as he realized she was in there, the door swung open and he stumbled over his own feet, falling in.
“Miles!” Marie gasped. She wore a night gown and a silk robe, which he clung to as he fell. She helped him up and ushered him to the bed.
“What were you doing at the door? Did you need something?” she asked, running her hands over his face to check for scratches or bruises from falling. He swatted her hand away and shook his head.
“I’m hungry,” he said.
“What do you want to eat, hon?” she smiled.
“Meat,” he grinned.
“My, you really do love meat, don’t you? I can make more soup for you, or a chicken sandwich. What would you like?”
“Neither of those,” he said. He slowly reached a hand towards her. “I want—“
Knock knock knock knock!
“That’s the door, I’ll be right back,” she said, patting him on the head as she left the room.
He uttered a small growl and glared at her as she left. He slid off the bed and followed behind her, silently. He was about to leap at her... then he smelt a familiar human. He stopped and ducked behind a corner, watching her answer the door. On the other side, two men in uniform stood. The left one, the tallest one, he was the one that had stabbed the boy the other night. Miles hissed and gripped the wall when he recognized him.
“Hello, can I help you?” Marie asked.
“We’re looking for a boy,” the shorter guard said. As he spoke, the taller one peeked his head in the house and glanced around.
“A boy?” Marie repeated.
“He’s about this tall, blond hair... have you seen him?” the short guard asked.
“What did he do?” she asked.
“Uh... he’s a missing child. Son of an important man staying in our fine city, you know. You seen him?”
“Son of who?”
The guard scratched his neck and looked at his partner, then back at Marie.
“James... son of James. You know that guy. Really rich, all that,” he said.
She blinked. “James who?”
“Listen ma’am, we don’t have time for this. Have you seen a young boy or not?”
She hesitated for a moment. Miles narrowed his eyes at the guards, locking them in his sight.
“No, I don’t believe I have. I’m sorry, sir,” she said.
“If you see a kid fitting the description, report it to a guard as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Not at all. Good luck, sirs,” she waved goodbye to them as they walked away. She shut the door and locked it, then leaned against it and bit her lip.
Miles approached her.
“You lied,” he said.
She looked down at him. “I lied,” she said.
“Why?”
She put her hand on his head gently. “Because I think they lied,” she said.
He smiled wide.
“You... you’re hungry, right? I’ll make you a sandwich.”
She held her hand out for him and he took hold of it, walking to the kitchen with her.
“I like bird,” he said, “bird is enough for now.”

Cole came home from work around sunset. He unlocked the door, tossed his jacket on the ground and kicked off his shoes, then stumbled into the kitchen looking for dinner. The table was a mess, with dishes and the remains of food covering it. Even so, there was no food on the stove or leftovers in the fridge. He grumbled and searched the house for his fiancée.
“Marie!” he called, loosening his tie as he walked through the piles of clothes and books and broken items on the ground. It looked like a tornado had gone through the house while he was gone. He looked in the living room; no one was there. He checked the backyard, the guest room, and it wasn’t until he opened the bedroom door that he found her. Marie was half sitting, half lying on the bed, gripping the boy in her arms. She was fast asleep, snoring lightly. He scratched his head and walked closer.
The boy’s eyes sprang open and he glared at Cole. He jumped a little and held his chest.
“Gods! You scared me!” he whispered, breathing. “What are you doing in my bed?”
Miles only stared at him, wrapped his arms around Marie, and closed his eyes. Cole frowned.
“This is my bed and that’s my fiancée, kid. Beat it,” he said. He walked to the edge of the bed and grabbed the boy’s shoulder. Miles hissed and snapped at him, biting his hand with fangs that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
“Shit!” he yelled, pulling his hand free and rubbing it. “What the hell! You bit me!”
Marie stirred and opened her eyes. “What are you yelling about...? Cole?” she mumbled.
“That freak bit me! And he hissed!”
“Honestly... the things you make up. He’s just a child.”
“He bit me, I’m bleeding!” Cole glared. “And why is he in my bed? We have a couch and a guest room. Get him out of here.”
“Your bed? I thought I slept here, too,” she frowned.
“Fine, our bed. Just get him out.”
“He got lonely all by himself. One night won’t hurt anything.”
“Where will I sleep?”
She yawned and smirked at him. “Like you said, we have a couch and a guest room.”
He frowned even more. “Really, Marie?”
“Really, Cole.”
He grumbled, kicked a stray shoe across the bedroom, and walked out, completely defeated. He stole a glance back at them and saw the boy making a face and sticking his tongue out.
“Stupid kid,” Cole said.
After wrapping the bite wound, he made his own dinner; soggy noodles and burnt sauce, picked up a few things around the living room, and retreated to the dusty guest room for the night.
* * * * *
“I received the reports half an hour ago.”
Eve set the stack of papers on the table and sat down.
“You may look through them, but there were no conclusive sightings. The demon seems to have disappeared,” she said.
“We have to catch this monster!” Jacob said.
“It is very likely it’s still in the city. The guards have been watching everyone who leaves town dutifully. The only way it could have escaped is if it can fly,” Eve said.
“It can’t, well, I don’t think it can,” Sadie said, “if it could fly it would’ve probably flown away after getting hurt, so no, I don’t think it can fly.”
“What is our next course of action?” Eli asked.
Eve scratched her chin. “Ideally, we want to keep the demon a secret and exterminate it without the citizens being any the wiser. However, our options are running out.”
“You’re saying we should tell the city that a wild, murderous demon is on the loose and we can’t find it?” Jacob sneered.
“I’m saying we should put out a wanted ad to the public with a generous reward. We can say the boy is wanted for theft, or put something vague. Either way, it should help to locate the demon,” she said.
“We don’t have a photograph,” Eli said.
“We already have an artist’s rendering from the guard’s description. We can have a new image drawn and remove the demonic features while still keeping his basic appearance. Once we have that it is just a matter of printing posters,” Eve said.
Jacob nodded. “It sounds like a good enough plan,” he said. Eli agreed with him.
Sadie coughed and fidgeted with her glasses. “It is a good idea, but what if the boy, that is, the demon, sees one of these posters? Assuming he has enough intelligence to understand they’re wanted ads, he could, you know, panic and kill someone,” she said.
“That is a good point, Sadie,” Eve said, “however it is not within our control. This is our best chance to find the demon. If we don’t find him, it can be assured that he’ll kill someone at some point anyway. If he sees a poster and reacts, our guards will see and attempt to stop him. That is better than him attacking someone privately where they cannot be helped.”
“You’re right, yeah,” Sadie said.
“It shall be done, then, unless there are any objections,” Eve said. Neither of the other three objected, so she set the plan in motion.