Gren Vegor almost couldn't believe the stroke of luck that had found him.
Since a few months ago when he has seen Theron in his shop for the first time and decided on the spot on making him the Guinea pig for his experiments, no matter how long it passed after that, he never saw him again.
The "foiler of schemes", called Alicia, whenever she was coming by his shop to buy groceries, was all alone. Here he had found the best "candidate" for his experiments, but he was nowhere to be found. It was driving him insane to where the boy possibly was and why he never came to his shop again with his mother.
One time when Alicia came by, he finally managed to pave the way of the conversation - after countless failures - to ask her about him, without drawing suspicion. After a little deliberate fawning over her genius son and because of the pride the "the foiler of schemes" had for her child, it didn't take her along to answer.
He thought many possibilities for why the boy didn't reveal himself again, but what he received as a response shocked him speechless nonetheless, as it was not part of the speculations he thought of.
The "foiler of schemes" told him all about the work - except the place - her boy was offered and how he was already working there.
'A four-years-old kid working?! What was the matter with these parents of his, were they insane?!' He thought in disbelief, as if he was the sanest person on the planet to call others insane.
The notion was so absurd, he didn't even know what to believe anymore. Should he trust the mother's boastful words or dismiss them all the same? He seriously didn't know!
One thing was for sure though. Whatever the truth behind the mother's words, it was still a troubling fact for him. How was he to obtain the boy for his research, when he didn't even know where to find him in the first place? That was the excruciating question.
The weeks and months went by with no sight of the boy, and he was starting to lose it even more than he already had.
He was agonizing with torturing guilt for having lost such perfect research subject and such great opportunity. He should have just grabbed the boy right that instant on the day he visited his shop, ignoring all the consequences that may have followed. Instead, now his research was stuck without being able to progress any further, not knowing when another chance of finding a suitable "candidate" would come around again.
That was, until one morning a few days ago, when he was walking to his shop from a different road than the usual one.
As he was about to exit an alleyway and enter the main market street, with his head already poking out of it, the boy finally showed up on his far left, walking towards his direction like a miracle.
Panicked by the sudden appearance, Gren Vegor jumped back in the shadows of the alleyway and hid behind a metallic dumpster, only to stay hidden there the entire time; witnessing the boy slipping and falling to the ground and staying there until the boy got up and walked away.
That was the first of many instances when he found himself hiding during his tailing and stalking of the boy spanning the few days that passed to arrive at this moment of time.
He had learned the boy's route by hand by now, and he knew every step he was taking to go to work. That's right, work. He had to see it to believe it...
The more he was tailing the boy, the more Gren Vegor was finding it hard to control his impulses to just jump from the shadows he was hiding in and kidnap Theron and be done with it.
The plan was ready, but the time was not ideal yet.
And that was because he was aware of the rats that were hiding in plain sight across all the market street, as well as the fact that most of them were there watching him; he was not an idiot.
Of course, he knew he was under surveillance for the things he did, but he didn't care. He would do them all over again if it was because of his research.
When he found the right spot and at the time of day the rats' surveillance waned at it, it was finally time to act!
One day, after noon had already passed, Gren Vegor hid behind a sharp corner of an alleyway adjacent to the market street. It was situated in the direction Theron was taking every day to go home after work.
He arrived a couple of hours earlier and patiently waited in the shadows for his victim to pass. The seconds and minutes passed by, with him being in a constant state of maddening anticipation.
Eventually, when the usual time he recorded down came to pass, Gren Vegor spotted the boy walking in his direction, true as a clock.
'Here we go!' He thought in his crazed mind as he quickly drew back to the shadows and hid fully; the cloth soaked with the sleeping drug securely grasped in his left hand.
The moment the boy made his appearance in front of the corner, Gren Vegor kicked his feet to the ground hard, jumping like lightning behind Theron in the blink of an eye.
The boy noticed him, but not quickly enough to avoid the drug covered cloth from pressing against his nose and mouth. Gren Vegor brought his right hand forward to the boy's forehead and held him from escaping. The drug was potent, and only a couple of seconds of breathing it in were needed for the boy to lose his strength, and eventually his consciousness.
'FINALLY!' With the boy out cold, he didn't dally and pulled him back to the shadows of the corner to avoid any stray eyes looking his way.
Stuffing the boy in a rough fiber bag for potatoes and hauling it over his shoulder, he calmly walked along a predetermined path not traversed by many, towards his groceries shop without a care in the world except his long-awaited experiments.