BLOOD AND ASHES

THE CALL OF DELGADO

"Scammer."

Then another.

"Fraud."

"Thief."

"Liar."

The screen filled with usernames Tobias didn’t recognize. Dozens, then hundreds refer.

These new set of people didn't offer anything helpful. They all happened to show skepticism and criticism of Tobias humble plight, faulting it even.

Suddenly the donations froze.

The chat continued to swarm with filth: slurs, accusations, threats. Bots spat out endless lines: Tobias Sheldon steals from children. Close his school. Arrest him now.

The feed stuttered. The video warped, buffering, freezing on Tobias’s desperate face.

“No!” he cried, slamming the desk. “This is not real! I am not a scammer! Please—I will never put up a false narrative!”

But his words drowned in the flood.

Within minutes, the screen went black.

Stream ended.

Tobias sat staring at his reflection in the dead screen. His chest heaved, shame started burning hotter than fire.

Outside, the compound came alive with movement. Parents calling their children. Car doors slamming. Laughter fading into the distance.

The sound reached Tobias like funeral bells tolling.

Through the window he saw teachers packing their desks into bags, eyes lowered, avoiding him. Parents whispered at the gate, shaking their heads.

“It’s over.”

“He’s finished.”

Tobias closed his eyes, his every breath was heavy.

Suddenly the door creaked.

“Dad?”

Tobias turned. There he was—Ethan. Seven years old. Thin shoulders carrying the strap of his oxygen bag, the tubing trailing behind like a leash chaining him to weakness. His eyes were wide, confused, trembling.

He shuffled into the office, dragging the bag.

“School hours aren’t over yet,” Ethan said softly, his little voice echoing in the hollow room. “But… the parents are taking the kids away. My friends are going home. The teachers too. Why are they leaving us, Dad?”

Tobias’s throat locked. His son’s words cut deeper than knives.

How could he tell him the truth? That the friends he loved, the laughter he shared, the lessons he dreamed of—were possibly gone forever?

He knelt beside Ethan, hands on his fragile shoulders.

“The school is going on a break, you will surely see your friends soon okay.” Tobias whispered, forcing a smile that hurt his face. “Today’s just… different, that’s all. You’ll see them again.”

Ethan’s lips curled in a weak smile. He believed. Because he wanted to.

And Tobias’s heart broke.

After Ethan left the desk, he didn’t go far. The boy slumped onto the worn couch in the corner of his father’s office, his breaths were shallow and uneven, each inhale for Ethan was a quiet struggle. The hiss of the oxygen tank by his side was faint, almost mocking in its reminder of time running out.

Tobias turned his head, watching him. His heart clenched. The boy’s face was pale, too pale, his small hands clutching the phone Tobias had slipped into them as a distraction. “Play with it, son,” he had said softly, forcing a smile. “Don’t think about anything else especially your friends at the moment okay.”

Ethan nodded innocently.

But Tobias’s own thoughts were drowning him. The oxygen tank—less than eight days left before it would run empty. Eight days, and nothing secured to replace it. What had once seemed manageable was slipping through his fingers like sand.

His wife's missing body, the possible collapse of his school, Ethan's oxygen tank, the possible character assassination he just suffered online, the piling debt that awaited him with the ever growing interests. He had no answer, no way to shield Ethan from the inevitable.

His fists curled on the desk, his nails biting into flesh as his gaze drifted to the sunlight cutting across the floorboards. Delgado.

The name burned inside his skull. You’ve taken my wife. You’ve broken my school. You’ve poisoned everything. The words thundered within him, but he kept them buried, locked behind clenched teeth. Ethan must not hear. Ethan must never know the weight pressing down on him.

Tobias wished he could find this senator Delgado and maybe he could get the answers he wanted if not the solution.

The phone in Tobias’s pocket buzzed suddenly. Once. Twice. It was a low hum against his leg, dragging him out of the storm in his chest.

He froze, pulse hammering. Another bill collector? Another cruel reminder of his debts? Or—could it be a crack in the silence, the first voice from the shadows that had ruined him?

He pulled the phone out, his hands trembling. The number was unfamiliar.

He answered anyway. “Who is this?” His voice was sharp, tense.

There was a pause. Then a deep voice, thick with a Spanish accent, almost spanglish, spilled into the room.

“Soy el Senator Delgado… Aurelio Delgado, you know who I am Tobias Sheldon.”

Blood rushed to Tobias’s face, his jaw clenching so hard it ached. Rage boiled through his veins as he stared at his son on the couch, unaware, still thumbing idly at the other phone Tobias had given him earlier.

The silence that had mocked Tobias for so long had been broken—by the man who had orchestrated his ruin.

Tobias’s lips parted, whispering to himself so faintly Ethan could never hear.

“At last…”