117. Emergency!

Five months later. Clarice had a serious conversation with Demetria in the living room early in the morning. "Dear, tell me. Are you ready now to be left alone on your own?" Demetria asked. "Why?" Clarice's brows furrowed, feeling apprehensive. "You are doing well in your training. It's about time I disappeared. I will leave next month. But before I left, I promised Martha I would help her and her team. They are currently facing difficulties locating the leaders of the illegal underground syndicates terrorizing the city. I will help them before I disappear," Demetria said calmly. Clarice felt sad. She was so used to having Demetria by her side that she felt lonely once her mentor leave."OK. I understand. I will accompany you on your missions. It's now time to put my training into action," she said excitedly. "Good. Let's do it together then," Demetria smiled. "But before that let's discuss the Midnight Wanderers Vampire Association. Because tonight I plan to bring you to headquarters to meet the team and Magnus, my successor. Tonight, you will meet them in your Supreme Punisher alter ego. Are you ready for tonight?" she asked. Clarice smiled. "Yes, I'm excited to meet Magnus and the team!" she replied excitedly. "Great! Now we shall make some preparations for tonight. You need to leave a lasting impression on them. Something that will instill fear in their minds so that they will perform their job properly and not abuse their position," Demetria said. "OK. I'm all in. Bring it on!" Clarice grinned, her voice brimming with confidence. The two women discussed what Clarice needed to do to impress everyone. After all, she is the Supreme Punisher. She must look and act powerfully in front of the staff. After a few hours of serious conversation the women finished their discussion. "Are you ready for tonight?" Demetria asked. "I'm ready 100%!" Clarice said enthusiastically. "Good." Demetria gave her a thumbs up, pleased with her answer. She stood up. "I'm going to headquarters to get everything ready for tonight's meeting. I must inform the staff that you are coming to meet everyone." "OK." Clarice nodded her head. Demetria walked towards the main door and disappeared outside. Clarice went to her room and made mental preparations for tonight. Time passes quickly. Clarice had just finished eating her afternoon snacks when Demetria suddenly appeared in front of her. "You are back early? Why?" Clarice asked. "Something has come up. Emergency!" Demetria said anxiously. "What is it?" Clarice immediately asked. "Martha texted me that last night, her niece together with her best friend and some co-workers went clubbing to celebrate a friend's birthday. But she and her friend never came home. They never returned their families' phone calls and texts, in short, they went missing," Demetria explained. "Oh, sorry to hear that. I hope the women are okay and are coming home safe today," Clarice said optimistically. "I will postpone your meeting with Magnus and others until I find Martha's niece," Demetria stated in a serious tone. "OK, no problem. May I know the missing women's names and ages? Are they with their boyfriends? What exactly happened?" Clarice wants to learn more about the missing women. "Martha's niece is Beatrice and the other woman is Leona. Both are 22 years old, single and employed in a department store. Their friends thought they had already gone home safely last night. But their families reported that the ladies did not arrive home last night so the search for the missing women is still going on," Demetria explained. Clarice sighed heavily. "When the girls don't answer phone calls and text messages from friends and families and are unable to come home at night, that is a red flag. I feared they had been kidnapped," she said, hoping she was wrong about her assumptions. "Or taken by human traffickers or ended up in someone's basement, tortured and raped by predatory men," Demetria added her own guess. "That is why it's better to have powers because we can protect ourselves from bad people. If these guys happened to kidnap us, the kidnappers are already dead by now," she added. "Yeah, you are right," Clarice nodded her head sadly. She feels lucky that after acquiring supernatural powers she is no longer the same weak person as before. "It is still daytime, 4:00 p.m., and the club will not open until 6:00 in the evening. So what's the plan?" she asked. Demetria laid out her plan. "We will visit the club, linger in the vicinity because if the culprits are human traffickers they usually scout for victims. We will present ourselves to them as human bait. We will act like tourists, looking around, pretending we are gullible women. Then they will follow us to clubs and everywhere and when we lower our guards down they will come in for a kill. Our goal is for them to bring us to their hideouts. Maybe we can find the two missing women there." "That's a good plan but what if the culprit is a lone serial killer or rapist and he hides the girls in the basement? How are we going to find out the kidnapper's identity?" Clarice asked. Demetria replied, "That's another theory we have to think about because anything can happen. But since we are offering ourselves in the open, we might attract different types of bad people. I just hope that whoever takes an interest in us will also lead us to Beatrice and Leona so we can save them." "So, since we are going clubbing, are we anticipating drinks laced with drugs that could make women weak and unconscious?" Clarice inquired. "Yeah. That's quite possible. Don't let other people handle your drinks. Order directly from the bartender and drink straight up," Demetria warned. Clarice smiled. "Copy that, boss!" "I hope they are still alive," Clarice said, getting increasingly worried about the girl's safety. "I hope we can find them alive and well," she sincerely hope. "If we can find them quickly, there is a big chance we can still save them. Get ready, we are leaving in one hour," Demetria replied. "Wait, what do they look like? Do you have photos of the two girls?" Clarice inquired. "Yes, I have their photos," Demetria said and a phone appeared in her hand. Clarice's eyes widened. "Wow, you have a phone? I didn't notice that," she muses. Demetria grinned. "I seldom used it. Just a communication device between me and the staff at headquarters and Martha. I'm not a phone addict who frequently checks their phones every second or every minute, checking out what's trending on social media," she joked. Clarice laughed softly, finding her mentor's joke amusing. Demetria unlocked her phone and showed her the photos of the two women forwarded to her by Martha. "Beatrice is the one with brown long wavy hair, and this girl with shoulder length blond curly hair is Leona." Clarice memorized the women's faces so she could easily remember them. "I'm done remembering their faces." "Good. I'm going to my room," Demetria said, heading for the staircase. Clarice went to her room to get ready for their mission tonight. Time flies by in a blur. One hour later, the women were ready to go, both wearing summer fashionable wide leg pants and long sleeve blouses. They left the sacred mountain and teleported to the city. They entered the nearest salon to beautify themselves, hoping to attract attention especially from bad people. They want to locate the missing women's whereabouts as fast as possible. After they finished in the salon, the women went straight to the NightBlue nightclub, the last place where the women were seen. Demetria and Clarice stand on the sidewalk outside the club, waiting for their turn. There are many patrons waiting in line, trying to get in early because a famous DJ was in the house to play techno music tonight. "This establishment has no CCTV cameras? How come they don't have video footage of the women's activity inside the club?" Clarice whispered her concern into her mentor's ears. "They have but the recorded videos of the two women are few in between. They just disappear without a trace," Demetria answered. Clarice glanced at the camera above the door. "How about that camera above the entrance? It didn't record the moment the women left the venue?" she asked. "It does have a record of the two women leaving the building and getting into a taxi cab. But upon investigation the car's plate number is not registered, probably faked and the said vehicle can no longer be found," Demetria answered. "Is there a high chance that we will get kidnapped by the same people who abducted Beatrice and Leona?" Clarice asked. "I'm not sure. We might not be kidnapped by bad people at all because the kidnappers are looking for other victims in other establishments. They might not be here anymore," Demetria said. "We are just taking chances by being here." "Oh, that's hard. It's like we are playing a waiting game, waiting to see what happens and where it might lead us," Clarice murmured. "Yeah, that's right. Since we don't have any leads and the taxi cab the women got into can't be found anymore, we just have to wait. Let's hope someone will lead us to the girls' location before it's too late," Demetria said optimistically. "Finding Beatrice and Leona is like finding a needle in a haystack. I have a feeling we are looking in the wrong place," Clarice expressed her growing concern about the uncertainty of their situation.