Watch Her Die (The Beocraftian Gambit - Book Two)

The early morning spring sun dangled overhead, its rays spilling into the house—as if in a strange contest of might. Kevin came and stood at the entrance. He rested his hand on the rough paintwork that coated the door and pushed. The room, partially illuminated, was warm, and the warmth found his face. Far across, away from the reach of the sunlight, on a leather couch next to the curtained door, sat Cedric. His attention was fixed wholly on a magazine that he held. Kevin walked into the room and shut the door, sealing off every trace of sunlight. It became dark in the room. He walked past Cedric without so much as a glance. “Where have you been?” Cedric demanded, eyes still fixed on the magazine. He stopped in his path, turned to look at him and said nothing. “You didn’t come home last night,” he finally took his eyes off the magazine and fixed them on him. “Why?” “There was something I needed to take care of.” “You mean this?

The figure, clad in a black baggy garment, sauntered down the passageway. Something about the way he walked struck Kevin as odd—he walked as if his feet were controlled. This inspired horror in Kevin. He felt an unnatural energy engulfing him. The fear spiralled through every nerve in his body, and he wondered what was going on. What is that thing? Thereafter, he heard the door open, then clang! All was calm again. After the hooded figure had vanished through the main door, he quickly ran to Cedric’s room to see if he was ok. Standing in the doorway, he called out Cedric’s name in a hushed voice but found that he wasn’t in his room. No one was. Kevin’s eyes were drawn to an empty suitcase lying on the table close beside the bed. He blanched, and his eyes became wide as though he’d seen a ghost. Then he returned his horror-stricken gaze to the passageway, and it all began to piece together. The hooded figure… is Cedric. He felt his heart pounding as he stood there in a dilemma. Now

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

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

“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