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 was finally his chance to see what Cedric had been hiding in his room—or he could follow him to see where he was going at such an unholy hour of the night. Standing there in the doorway, contemplating, a thought came to him. He knew exactly what he had to do.
Kevin dashed out of the room into the passageway to follow Cedric. He found the hooded figure a distance away from the house, moving at a swift pace. He moved with great stealth from one car to another as he followed from a distance, watching as the hooded figure vanished into the eerie darkness of the lonely street. He took to his heels and pursued him.
Kevin moved at a slow and gentle pace behind him to avoid being detected. After an hour, they soon came upon a dark forest surrounded by sculpted trees. Kevin followed him cautiously into the forest, using the trees as cover. As they walked deep into the forest, the darkness thickened.
Cedric’s black garment blended with the dark, cold night, and before long, Kevin lost sight of him. He looked around and observed that he had gone deep into the forest with no clue of where he had come from. He did not know his way out, neither did he know where he was going. He was lost.
Trees surrounded him, and he could barely see a thing in the darkness. He walked around the forest, clueless, searching for a way out. His empty hand thrummed nervously in his pocket.
After what seemed like hours, he came across an old, dilapidated warehouse, almost similar in structure to the one T-Murek had used to torture Loretta. Exhausted from wandering in the dark for several hours, he approached the ramshackle building wearily.
Kevin heard chanting coming from the warehouse as he inched closer. He tiptoed to the door and gently pressed his ear against it, unsure of what was going on inside that wooden building. He heard loud chanting coming from within the warehouse like there was a throng inside.
He slowly bent to look through the little keyhole. His eyes widened when he saw them—the dangerous shifters Leonard had described. They were chanting in unison. All were dressed in big black hooded garments, just like Cedric, and each of them had a mask on. They sat surrounding a long table that had the eye of a wolf drawn on top of it. The painting was as Leonard had described.
Kevin’s eyes darted about in all directions as he glanced at each of their masked faces. He became drawn to a masked figure that closely resembled the figure that’d kidnapped him a year ago. An icy chill went down his spine when he noticed the letter ‘C’ marked on his mask.
His eyebrows rose.
That’s him.
Seeing the masked man jerked his memories to the event that led to his kidnap.
He opened the door to his old, darkroom and observed a mistily human figure watching him from the shadow far across the room. He neared for a closer view. Slipping his hands into the pocket of his jacket, he pulled out his phone and turned on the light. He was startled when the light fell on the face of a masked figure standing in the corner. It held a shovel in its hand, gazing straight at him coldly. Kevin opened his mouth to scream, but then felt the shovel slam hard against his forehead, knocking him unconscious. A thud sounded after he collapsed, and his phone scattered beside him. The room whirled before his eyes as he lay motionless on the cold marble. He felt a tight grip on his left leg as he was being dragged out of the room, and then his world went blank.
It puzzled Kevin when he saw a little teenager sitting beside the figure that’d kidnapped him. The teenager also had a similar mask on, but his had the letter ‘M’ carved on it—a little close to his left eye.
It was at that instance Kevin noticed they were all wearing similar masks, but each one of their masks had a unique letter of the English alphabet carved on it. He quivered as his eyes fell on the one who had the letter ‘T’ carved on his mask. His guts told him it was definitely T-Murek.
And just then, he noticed a creature standing behind T-Murek. Only that creature remained standing, while the rest were seated. The creature had a hideous red face, which made Kevin wonder if it was wearing a mask. It couldn’t be his original face, could it? Again, an icy shiver spiralled down his spine when he realised it was.
He observed that it dressed a bit differently from the rest of the group. It wore a tattered, dark hooded cloth that had many tears on it. Its cloak was torn to look like rags. And it held some kind of fork with pointy ends in its bony fingers, which made it closely resemble the grim reaper. It scared Kevin to the bone.
Suddenly, the hideous creature slowly raised its head as if sensing that something was wrong. Then it turned to look towards the door—where Kevin stood. Kevin felt its cold eyes bore into him.
Almost immediately, the chanting stopped, causing the room to be as quiet as a grave. Every masked figure in the room turned to gaze at the door—as if they could all sense his presence.
Kevin’s eyes widened.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Thank you so much for reading this far! I’m so glad to know that someone found this story interesting. 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 and a review to show support.
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
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.