Natasha was fast asleep as she stood erect, hands tied behind the pole. T-Murek trudged towards her. He couldn’t contain his excitement. And reaching her, he threw his fist to her face, and it collided with her nose.
Natasha came awake with a sharp cry. Her eyes were dark, cupped by fleshy pouches and radiating fear. Her lips appeared swollen, and blood dripped from her nose. She looked up at T-Murek with dread. Her entire body quivered at the mere sight of him.
Natasha noticed she was standing naked before him and moved her hands to cover her nakedness, but found that they were tied behind the pole. Sweat broke on her brows as she struggled with all her might, letting out scared whimpers. But the rope would not give. Her wrists were hurting from the struggle.
Closing in on her, T-Murek cupped her jaw and spoke to her face. “I’m not going to lie, this is going to be a really bad day for you, sweetheart.” His playful tone concealed a lethal truth.
Nata
She felt something hard and smooth press against her chest. Suddenly, what felt like a thousand volts raced through her, forcing her back to reality. Gasping, she was back in the same room, lying prostrate on a table with her chest bathed in blood. She met T-Murek’s gaze. “You can’t die just yet, not until I’m fully satisfied,” he reminded her.T-Murek dropped the defibrillators gently onto the table, turning to Kevin with a condescending smile. He searched his face for any sign of revulsion, but found none—just a blank stare.T-Murek took a glove from his bag pack and put it on. Then he pushed his fingers through Natasha’s chest. He felt her heartbeat intensify. She uttered a shrill cry at the intense pain. Thereafter, her face remained frozen, her eyes wide and wild. She felt his finger diving in deeper. More blood spilled on her chest.Kevin sat on the chair, watching with bloods
Derik walked out of the hospital. Full of smiles as he edged towards his car. For the first time he felt like he had done something worth it.“Things are going to differ from here on out.”When he had entered his car, he plugged the keyhole to start the engine, but then his phone started ringing. He looked over it to check the caller ID. Horror crept over him when he saw the name.Murphy.He froze, his body trembling.I don’t understand.He felt his body quivered.I have never saved Murphy’s contact on my phone. How then is someone calling my phone with the name of a dead officer?He felt nervous as he picked the call. Placing the phone gently over his ear, he uttered a soft hello. He heard nothing—just a cold silence from the other end. He knew someone was listening. Then the call ended.Derik felt a cold shiver racing down his spine. Sudden
“Where is the boy?” he questioned calmly—voice sounding dangerously low. “Go to hell!” she bawled, glaring at him with scorn. T-Murek snorted at her rage. “Do you want to die like this?” he gestured towards Sinclair’s body, which lay just a few inches away. “In a matter of minutes, your husband’s body would serve as food for creatures that walk these woods. Do you want same fate to befall you?”Rebecca was crying, yet she felt furious. She snarled at him, her eyes bloodshot and filled with unrestrained rage. “You would have to kill me before I let you lay a hand on my son, you bastard!”Rebecca couldn’t understand where the sudden courage to face T-Murek came from. She felt invincible at that moment, like she could do anything—like she could take him on.“Very well.” His lips curled into a scornful smile. “We’ll have it your way.” Her hands folded into a tight fist and remained at her side. And just then, she understood where the courage came from. She drew strength from the desire
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?
Shady, dressed in prison uniform, sat on an old, beat-up bench, glaring at Frank, who sat directly opposite. He sat with his arms cuffed, watching as Frank scatter several registers on the desk which separated them; he was searching for a particular file. They have been this way for the past ten minutes since he was pulled out of his prison cell.Shady groaned with impatience. “How much longer do I have to wait?” he said impatiently, keeping the heat in his voice at a low simmer. “It’s been like forever.”Frank ignored him, then singled out a card stock sheet from the bunch and glanced through it, nodding in satisfaction when he confirmed it is the file he had been searching for. Then he read the name on the file aloud, “Mr Shade Casper…”“Shady,” the thug corrected him.Frank read again, glancing at him momentarily, “Mr Shady…”He stifled a groan. “Just Shady is
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
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 r
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