{ PART 1 }{ PART 2 }{ PART 3 }{ PART 4 }{ PART 5 }{ PART 6 }{ PART 7 }
[INCLUDES SEXUAL VIOLENCE]
I woke up a bit later than I usually do, but it was early enough so that I wasn’t late for the job. Micky was snuggled next to my feet and didn’t react when I got out of my bed. I was hoping that the captain will or have sent Johnatan the information his wife found if she found anything. I took a shower and checked my phone after it. I had a few messages from the captain. I hoped that Johnatan told him to send the information to every detective, but even if he did, the messages weren’t about that. 18 new people were found dead. This time, instead of having four of them tied around a tree, they were thrown onto a pile in the middle of the forest. The captain sent me a picture he said he took without looking at the pile. This was the most disgusting and sick thing I have ever seen.
I called Johnatan and asked him if we are going to take a look at the pile to which he agreed. We dropped off Kaley at the office as she asked and left for the scene of the crime. When we arrived, I felt the smell immediately after leaving my car. Even standing more than 500 feet away from the pile, I could barely inhale without puking. I lifted my shirt to my nose and tried breathing through it. It was only a bit better. The captain was standing in front of the pile with one hand on his stomach and another with a tissue over his nose and mouth. I stopped right next to him and checked the pile.
A body of an older woman was on top of the pile. She was laying on her back, but her head was turned towards us. The pits where her eyes were supposed to be stared at us and oozed blood over her cheek and victims below her. The tongue was hanging to the side and the saliva that was left dripped down from it. The blood poured from her flayed arm as well and covered the bald man’s head below it. All other bodies were in a state just as terrible or one much worse. The hardest one to look at was a 6-year-old boy. He was at the bottom of the pile crushed by the rest of the bodies. I couldn’t stay there for much longer. I needed to go somewhere else. I needed to get away from this mess.
“So what’s her favorite restaurant?” I asked Johnatan after both of us got into the car.
He told me about a new Chinese restaurant I’d never heard of, but they usually went there for special occasions. I also asked him if he somehow managed to figure out who else got the scar, but he didn’t. The captain didn’t tell him anything about Ewan’s heritage as well. That day at the office went really well. I told Kaley what restaurant I’d be taking her to and the work wasn’t too hard. The fact that the captain was mostly on the field that day made it even better. However, I noticed that Elliot was acting a bit off. He was a bit frightened and clumsy. I instantly connected the two dots and assumed that he was marked. Later on, I found out it was just diarrhea.
I went home a bit defeated, but when Kaley reminded me that I’d be going on a date with her, I got much better. I spent the entire day preparing myself and trying to find the perfect outfit to wear. Micky was next to me the entire time, but he ran away when I started trying on the perfumes. The best part was that Johnatan even agreed to lend me his car so that I could take Kaley to the restaurant and back. The time passed so quickly and I was already putting on my shoes and leaving the house. Micky started acting a bit weird before I left but I brushed it off as the perfume again. I didn’t put on much of it, but cats have a much stronger sense of smell.
Johnatan waited for me in front of his car. He was leaning onto it and smoking a cigarette.
“You’re going to drop me off and then pick her up, okay?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Get in,” he said throwing the cigarette onto the floor and stepping on it.
I sat down in the car and turned it on. Johnatan sat down next to me and gently grabbed my wrist before I started driving. I looked at him and saw him staring forward. He wasn’t staring at anything particular, he just needed to stare at something.
“The captain’s wife found something,” he whispered.
My eyes widened and I realized why he was staring into the distance.
“So… who was it? Who got all the inheritance?”
He looked into my eyes and kept looking for a few seconds before turning back forward.
“Person who inherited everything from Ewan Loringer… was…” he sighed. “Cameron Waynewood.”
“Fuck,” I replied. “How did he get the inheritance?”
“In the files the captain’s wife found, it said that Cameron was Ewan’s bastard child and Ewan even made him the inheritor a few days before he did what he did. He was his oldest child and he had him with a close friend when they were 19 and he kept giving money to Cameron’s mother. When Ewan died in 1994, Cameron was already 23 and was old enough to inherit everything.”
“Okay,” I said taking in a deep breath. “So, Cameron was Ewan’s son… That explains why he was a piece of shit, but Cameron can’t be the leader of this group, cult, or whatever it is. I killed him 7 years ago.”
“I don’t know, Elijah. I don’t know what to think about this entire situation, but we’ll figure something out.”
“I hope so.”
We didn’t talk during the rest of that ride. I didn’t know what to talk about. Discussing the case would ruin my mood for a date with Kaley, and I didn’t want to talk about Olivia, Johnatan’s ex. It was confirmed that one of the bodies on the pile was hers. I knew he decided to drink himself to sleep that night. I drove up to Kaley’s house and knocked on her door. After she opened the door, her beauty mesmerized me. The black sleeveless dress she wore was almost as beautiful as her. However, what gave me the most joy is seeing that her right arm had no scar. She wasn’t the one who was marked. I opened the car doors for her and we went straight to the restaurant.
The dinner was amazing. It was so amazing to spend time with Kaley. We laughed, we smiled, we talked… The food was great as well, but all of it was broken when I suddenly felt pain in my right arm. Kaley noticed my reaction to it.
“What’s wrong, Elijah?” she asked me concerned.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said smiling and putting my hand on my stomach. “I’ll just go to the bathroom for a bit.”
“Okay,” she replied.
I stood up still smiling and Kaley started walking toward the bathroom. I almost crashed into a waiter on my way there, but I stepped aside at the last second. I managed to get into a stall, unbutton my shirt, take it off and hang it on the bathroom door. I took the toilet paper and kept wiping the scar as it bled more and more. Now, there were two people out there who had the scar, and I didn’t know who they were. It didn’t take too long for the scar to stop bleeding. I spat on some paper to clean out the wound before wiping it once more with dry toilet paper. I put on my shirt and left the stall. After washing my face and hands, I returned to the table where we talked for about another hour. The scar distracted me from the conversation but I managed to keep myself focused on Kaley. We left the restaurant at around 11:37 PM.
The car ride back was mostly calm. We continued our conversation and I was happy to spend the time with her. There was one drunk driver that drove far past the allowed limit, but we ignored him. I stopped in front of her house and both of us walked up to her front porch.
“I really liked spending time with you,” she told me standing before her front door. “We should repeat this.”
“Of course,” I replied smiling. “Can’t wait for the next time.”
“Thank you for the night… and for helping my brother. I know you did as much as you could.”
“Did he tell you that?” I asked her.
She nodded.
“It’s like his entire opinion on you changed overnight. What did you two talk about?”
“Oh, a lot of things,” I told her remembering the night when he tried robbing me. “A lot of good things.”
She smiled, got closer, and put her arms around my neck. She hugged me and before letting go, she kissed me on the lips.
“Thank you once more,” she said opening her front door. “See you on Monday.”
With a smile, she disappeared behind the door. I took in a deep breath, turned around, and walked up to my car. As I was just about to open my car’s door, I noticed a strong light flashing and took a look beyond my car. I noticed a black car standing on the other side of the road with the lights turned on. The lights turned on, but the car stayed there. I knew that the person inside it was trying to tell me to come closer and carefully, I did. As I got closer and closer to the car, I recognized whose car it was. The door opened and a person stepped out.
“We need to talk, Elijah,” the captain told me.
“Captain,” I replied. “What are you doing here?” I was careful.
“As I said, we need to talk. You can choose where we’ll talk. My house, your house, my car, your car…” he was saying when I cut him off.
“That’s not my car,” I told him.
“That car… It doesn’t matter where we speak, we just need to.”
“What about?” I asked.
He exhaled, grabbed his forehead, and looked around stepping to the side. He was clearly irritated by my attitude.
“Look, I know Johnatan told you about the coke and all that bullshit. I know he told you that I’m behind blackmailing you but there’s a much bigger problem out there.”
“Johnatan told me what your wife found out. Is it about that?”
“It is about the cult, but not about Ewan or Cameron. It’s about Cameron’s son and Ewan’s grandson, Hector.”
“What about him?” I asked.
“He…” the captain was about to say when we heard glass shattering in the direction of Johnatan’s house.
The captain immediately pulled out a gun and both of us crouched down.
“There’s a shotgun in the front passenger seat,” the captain told me. “Take it.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “It’s probably just Johnatan being drunk. His girlfriend was found on the pile.”
“Believe me,” he said slowly while staring into my eyes. “It’s not him. Be careful.”
An uneasy feeling crept up my back. The way the captain was looking at me and said that just terrified me for some reason and I decided to do what he told me to do. I ran to the other side, slowly and quietly opened the door, took the shotgun, and closed the door behind me. We slowly crept up to Johnatan’s house and leaned onto the wall next to his front door. We looked at each other and the captain nodded at me. He took a step forward and opened the door. I immediately pointed the shotgun into the house. The captain had his gun pointed forward and I moved the shotgun as he passed in front of it.
Passing through the front door led us to a hallway. The captain’s flashlight lit the entire thing up. After taking a few steps forward, we noticed a large opening in the wall to our left. After the captain pointed the flashlight at it, we realized that it was a living room. We couldn’t see anyone in there so we slowly continued on. The door on the right revealed a bedroom. We checked the closets, but we found no one. The kitchen was the last second room on the right side, and like the living room, it had no door. It was also empty but we found what made the shattering sound. It was a bottle of vodka. The floor was completely wet from it. We also found a few opened beer bottles on the table. It was all Johnatan’s.
The last two doors remaining were the second door on the left and the door at the end of the hallway which was opposite the front door. The second door on the left revealed a bathroom. We checked in there as well but we found no traces of anyone. We left and took a step towards the last door. Before the captain started to open it, I suddenly felt pain in the left part of my neck. It was like someone stabbed me with a needle. I gasped, dropped the shotgun, and immediately went to put my hand on the place where I was wounded, but I fell to my knees before I could do anything.
The captain heard my knees hit the ground and turned around. His flashlight blinded me and I couldn’t really see what was happening.
“Get down,” the captain shouted.
I assumed that he was holding his gun and pointed it at someone behind me. Someone stabbed me in the neck. Was I dying? The next thing I remember is falling to the floor on my right side and seeing the captain pointing the gun at someone. The door behind him opened, and a dark figure stabbed the captain in the neck as well. My eyesight was messed up so I didn’t see what it was. The captain dropped his gun and the flashlight and fell to his knees. The last thing I remember seeing before being knocked out is the captain falling to the floor and a figure stepping in front of me. Whoever it was, they were barefoot. I saw them pick up a shotgun and tried looking up. I awaited an unpleasant sight of a naked person, but instead, I saw the butt of the shotgun hitting my head.