Gasping, Kevin bolted away from the door to the side and pressed his back against the wall, heart throbbing within his chest, legs trembling. After a minute, he stooped to steal a peek through the keyhole. When he did, he found himself staring into the bloodshot eyes of the hideous creature. It stood behind the door, peeking through the keyhole, watching him.
Kevin trembled as he stared into the creature’s deeply colored eyes. Gasping, he fell backward, his body frozen all over in fear. He dropped to the cold floor—chest heaving, shuffling away from the door. Glancing upward at the keyhole, he saw the large, red eyeball move to focus its gaze on him.
Kevin was alarmed and immediately sensed danger. The creature kept staring at him through the keyhole with fierce eyes. That wasn’t right. Why is he just standing there, behind the door, doing nothing—only staring?
The answer didn’t come quickly, but the voices in his head told him to run. Without wasting a second, he quickly got back on his feet and ran in the opposite direction. He didn’t know where he was going, nor did he see anything through the thick darkness, but instinct told him to just keep running. To anywhere. He didn’t care where.
Kevin heard tree branches breaking behind, followed by the sound of several footsteps moving swiftly. He turned and saw two masked figures chasing him. And to his right, he found another following him using the trees. It kept jumping from one tree onto another, drawing closer to him at a fast pace. He felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through him.
His body trembled when he took in the sight of another figure a few inches away from him, gliding in the air. Its naked feet did not touch the floor, but were suspended in thin air as it chased him. The more he ran, the faster they came closer.
“Oh golly! What the hell have I stumbled into?” he said in a quivering voice.
He ran through the scanty forest, not sure where he was headed. Thick darkness closed in on all sides as he ran mindlessly. The wind slashed at his face. His naked feet weakened with every step. Kevin wasn’t sure when he’d lost his shoes, but he would have to think about that later on, when he is safely out of here.
He couldn’t breathe, but couldn’t stop—couldn’t risk getting caught. Suddenly, he heard a loud gunshot echoing throughout the forest. The sound, which sent several birds nesting in the forest trees into the sky, scared him to death. He turned to see who had fire at him, but found that none was holding a gun.
The masked figure floating in the air was already on his tail, its arm stretched forth to grab his collar. Another loud gunshot sounded, and the masked figure collapsed behind him.
Kevin caught the headlights of a car driving through the forest towards him. It only worsened his anxiety. The car stopped in front of him and its headlights bathed his face. He scampered to the side to run past, but then—much to his surprise—he saw Derik through the window.
Derik hollered out to him to get in, aiming his gun at the masked figure running behind him. Having gotten a clear shot of his target, he fired. The hooded figure dropped, wilting in pain.
Another hooded figure jumped off a tree branch above them, coming down. Derik shot him away, and its blood spilled on them. “What the hell are these things!?” he sneered, quickly putting the gun back in the car and driving away after Kevin got in.
The sight of blood smeared all over him appalled Kevin. “God knows I have not a clue what they are.”
Huffing and puffing, he turned to glance backward as Derik drove off. He blinked in surprise when he saw the two hooded figures Derik had shot earlier getting back on their feet again. They huddled together. And all three masked figures remain rooted to the ground, glaring at them through their masks. Again, Kevin felt a shiver go down his spine. He felt like he had almost escaped death.
“Are you crazy coming out here alone?” Derik yelled at him. “Those things—whatever they are, could have killed you if I hadn’t showed up.”
“Thanks for saving me—again. I owe you my life.”
###
“I did some digging into the organization you mentioned earlier,” Derik started off. He tried to reach for a file sitting at the back of the car. Kevin helped him get it, taking out an embossed paper and glancing through it.
“Everything on that file is what I found about them. This organisation is truly a force to be reckoned with,” Derik said, eyes on the road. “My research on this organisation led me to this forest. I was tracking them a while ago, but your actions back there have compromised everything. How did you come to find this place before I did, anyway?”
“I followed Cedric down here.”
“Cedric?” his eyebrows waggled. “Who is Cedric?”
“The old man I live with,” he acknowledged. “Turns out he is a shifter, and a member of Beocraft.”
Silence fell.
“Does he know you know?” he glanced from the corner of his eyes.”
Kevin nodded.
“I’ll disclose this new information to the taskforce right away. We should waste no time in bringing him in, lest he get away.” His jaw clenched. “What the hell are you thinking, living with a dangerous shifter?”
“Cedric won’t hurt me. I’ve been living with him for over a year now and he’s never laid a finger on me. Not once. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done so a long time ago,” he said confidently. “And besides, I only just discovered that Cedric is one of them.”
Derik snorted at his response. “You have no idea what you are talking about.” He took out a black-and-white photograph of an aged man and placed it before him. “Here is some of the information I’d gathered about the organization.”
“The man whose picture you see there is General Brinton Pierre. In 1948, he ran for an election in this city for the position of mayor but lost to his running mate, Dr Nathaniel Connelly. General Pierre couldn’t live with the defeat, so he sorted out means to overthrow Nathaniel’s leadership, that was when this political group of shifters—Beocraft—came to him. A few days after winning the election, Dr Nathaniel Connelly went missing and was later found in an abandoned warehouse. He was brutally tortured to death.”
“They held an election re-run, and Brinton won. Not a single competitor who had competed with him for the position was left alive. Beocraft had wiped them all out. No one could stand up against him. The first person who did met the same fate as Nathanial. That is the only real record anybody has on this organization.”
Derik turned to Kevin, trying to stay focused on driving. “Beocraft is a group of politically motivated and powerful individuals who stop at nothing to get what they want, and over the years these ruthless killers have earned the nickname ‘Angels of Death’. The only reason Cedric might be keeping you alive is because he doesn’t perceive you as a threat—yet, but the moment you get in his way, or start asking too many questions, rest assured that he won’t hesitate to kill you.”
His response caused Kevin’s spine to stiffen. He felt vulnerable, shoulder slouching forward.
Derik placed a bunch of files in his hands. It contained photographs of two police officers. Kevin quickly recognized one of them in the photograph. “Wait… I know this officer. His name’s...”
“Murphy Hatfield,” he interrupted. “Was a detective with the Fallout police department. He was recently declared missing until earlier today, when his corpse was found in an old abandoned warehouse,” Derik explained.
“I know the story. I found the body.” Looking over at the other police officer in the photograph whom he didn’t recognize, Kevin raised an eyebrow. “Who is the other guy?”
“That is Sam McClain—a police officer also working with Murphy in the Homicide department of Fallout police force. He went missing a few days after Murphy disappeared.”
Wrinkles creased his brows. “That’s odd. You think maybe Beocraft must have kidnapped him?”
“Possibly. If they did, then it’s only a matter of time before his body would be dumped on the street like the rest of the tortured victims we have seen so far.”
“What does Sam McClain have to do in all this, and why does the organisation want him dead?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”
In the silence that followed, Derik said, “There’s something I want to tell you, but promise me you will not mention a word about it to anyone else.” He turned to him. “Can I count on your discretion?”
Kevin picked up a note of utter seriousness in his voice. Whatever it was Derik wanted to tell him, he could tell it was important. “You have my word,” he finally said.
“Do you swear it?” he sounded dead serious.
“I swear.”
He blew the spirit away with an impatient sigh, then turned to face him. “I was born a shifter, just like you,” he revealed.
A stony silence brought the conversation to a standstill.
Author’s Note:
Thank you so much for reading my story! I'm so glad that you were truly able to immerse yourself in it so much so that you've read up to this chapter. It would truly mean so much to me if I could get many intrigued readers such as yourself to see this piece! You could help me do this by giving me some Gems to show support, this way my story would advance in rank.
Kevin was dumbstruck, and his eyes went round as he turned to meet his gaze. He is also a shifter? He could never have guessed. Derik went on, “My mom and dad died a few years after I was born.” His body stiffened as he sucked back a deep, quick breath. “They were shifters too.” Kevin felt a pang of sympathy for him and said, “My heart goes out to them.” Derik said nothing. Tears threatened to form in his eyes. “I didn’t even get to know my parents.” Kevin thought sharing his own story might let him see that his own case wasn’t unique. “T-Murek killed them before I came of age, and he is out to torture me the same way he’d tortured them. He is just waiting until my twenty-fifth birthday to do it. He wants to fulfil a promise he made to my mother several years ago.” Suddenly, they heard a car horning ahead, and Derik looked up at the road, his eyes widening at the approaching truck. He quickly realized he was driving in t
Leonard’s body was covered in cuts and bruises, his mouth frozen in an open scream. Strands of veins were visible across his neck, and his bloodshot eyes were wide open, staring at the crowd in a way that made most of the people that gathered there uncomfortable. Just like Murphy, his chest was torn open, and his ribs were visible. His heart hung from his chest. The corpse appeared pale from losing too much blood. Struck with revulsion, Kevin quickly turned to look away, tears forming in his eyes. He never could have believed this would happen to Leonard barely two days after discovering Murphy’s corpse in that warehouse. Several seconds later, having made peace with the fact that Leonard was truly gone, he slowly turned to look at the body which lie in the same spot Mirabel’s body had once lay. His fingers folded into a tight fist as he forced himself to look away. But he couldn’t. His gaze remained fixed on the corpse, tears sliding down his cheek, lips trembling.
He stood from the bench and trudged towards the birds. And as he neared, he noticed they were the same crows from his dream. Only inches away, the crows stopped to stare at Kevin in a way that struck him as odd.He quivered at the sight of their scary red eyes looking up at him and stopped dead in his track. They let out loud caws, as though they perceived him as a threat. Then they spread their wings and found flight.Almost immediately, a flurry breeze blew in his direction, brisk, cool. Kevin heard a voice from the wind call out Natasha’s name in a faint whisper. The voice was clear as day. He’d heard the same voice last night—in his dream. There was no mistake.Kevin’s eyes widened when he suddenly realized he was reliving a moment—a moment that had already happened in his dream. Suddenly, he realised what was going to happen next. Heart pounding against his chest, he took out his phone to call Derik.“Derik&h
They rushed William to the hospital, and the doctors immediately started operating on him upon arrival. While Derik and Kevin sat outside the operating room, waiting nervously with their fingers crossed, some security men stood in the background, keeping an eye on them.Kevin sat on a bench, gently tapping his feet against the floor. He squinted uneasily at Natasha who paced the room nervously. Her lips were restless as she said silent prayers for her dad’s quick recovery. He felt an urge to put his arms around her.But if he did, what would it lead to?Derik turned to gaze at her as she paced, then clutched her arm. “Don’t fret over it. Worrying won’t make your dad get better any faster,” he said. “Try to relax. It will help calm your nerves.”Natasha took a seat beside him—directly opposite Kevin. But that didn’t stop her worries; she fidgeted in her seat still. And her gaze found Kevin. They e
“T-Murek had also targeted Natasha’s dad,” Derik pointed out, looking over an unmarked photograph of William that hung on the wall. “But why?”“Warn him of the grave danger he’s in.”Derik took out his phone to capture the photograph of William on the wall, then made a video recording with his phone of every photograph in the room.Another photograph caught Kevin’s eyes. His stomach knotted with dread when he saw it was a picture of himself. It was placed alongside Natasha’s. Both were unmarked. He took down his photograph from its frame and stared with confused eyes. He tried to recall when he had taken this picture—eyes widened when it finally hit him.A week ago.Back there in principal Mac Georgery’s office, when he’d signed the enrolment form, his photograph had been taken and stored in the school register. He felt a shiver race down his spine when he
Kevin was in a cab, heading back home. His meeting with the principal didn’t turn out as he’d hoped. He’d ended up getting himself expelled instead. At the moment, he wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. How did a photograph that had been taken privately at the college he recently enrolled in end up in a random building—a killer’s den? There has to be some explanation.Just then, his phone rang. Alex.“Hello, Kevin.”“Alex?” his forehead creased. “It’s 9 pm. You never call this late. Is something wrong?”“There are some things I need to tell you. It’s about…”“And it can’t wait until tomorrow morning?” he interrupted.“No, it can’t,” he answered. “Where are you right now?”Kevin picked up a slight tone of distress in his voice. “I am headed home. Why?&rdquo
Kevin walked out of the autopsy room where Landry’s body was kept for medical examination. Alex followed him closely behind, sympathizing with him. He had just witnessed the brutal nature of Landry’s body, and it left him in considerable shock. His expression was numb as he walked to a bench in a corner. As he sat, he stared blankly at the wall.Alex took his seat beside him. “I just received a report that your friend’s house went up in flames at about 3:45am, early this morning. The fire was said to have started in the kitchen. I thought I should let you know.”Kevin turned to look at him, eyes swollen and reddened, his cheek wet with tears. He was terribly distraught that it became a nauseating pain. He smiled, then suddenly started laughing hysterically. Tears streamed from his cheek as he laughed.Alex, bothered by his psychotic behaviour, slouched. “Kevin? Are you alright?” he asked, waving his hands over his face.
Kevin trembled from his knee as he looked up at its mask. Its dark, hallow eyes sent a cold shiver racing down the length of his spine. Only an inch separated him from the masked figure, who stood still with its arms folded and eyes fixed on him.Kevin shuffled away from him. The figure, who seemed almost inanimate, remained unmoved, and he wondered why. With his hands still pressed on its chest, he doubted if really the masked man was there with him. A sudden curiosity grew within him that left him wondering whose face was behind that mask. Was this really the same figure that kidnaped him a year ago, or was someone pulling a prank on him?Kevin started towards him, raising a hand to his face—to take off his mask. Only an inch close, he spread out his finger to pull off the mask, but then, much to his horror, the figure clutched his arm, pulling it away.Gasping, Kevin fell back and scrambled away quickly, pulling back his wrist. And when he turned to loo