“…and if it makes you feel any better, am going to shut the windows.” He shut the window and then signaled the armed men to leave.
“Please don’t leave me here…”she mewled. “…he will take me.” She held Kevin’s arm looking sorrowfully at him.
“Lena, no one will take you…” Kevin tried to calm her. “There is no one in here with us. We are the only people here in this room. No one else is with us. Go to sleep now, I promise I will stand by your side to watch you sleep.”
She argued “but he is standing over thr…”
But Kevin cut her of “…just go to sleep Lena, it will help clear your head.”
Kevin said with an assuring smile “…I’d be sitting right here. No one is going to take you.” he gently helped her lay down then he covered her up with a blanket.
When the doctor had arrived, Mrs. Lena was already fast asleep. He met up with both Kevin and Alex. “Doctor, did you noticed the way Mrs. Lena behave a little bit earlier?” Alex quickly asked him.
Doctor Kent answered “…right after you brought her here, she regained consciousness shortly. She then began hallucinating. She started talking about a masked man that wasn’t really there.”
Kevin looked at Lena through the large transparent window as she slept peacefully. “What is happening to her?” he asked.
“She is in shock.” The doctor answered. “I learnt that Lena here had suffered some challenges taking care of herself and her daughter as well. When her daughter was kidnapped, it traumatized her. But when she saw the brutal nature of her daughter’s body, it destroyed her.”
The doctor looked at Lena through the window, then he said “Mrs. Lena is slowly losing her mind. We need to move her to a psychiatric medical center to have her examined. That was the reason why we sealed off the room and locked the door.
“Sir, I took some men into the streets to look for your daughter and especially the guy who was with her when she disappeared. But it is particularly hard to find the guy she was with at the hospital at the time of her disappearance since we have no ID on him.”
William was disappointed over Sergeant Scott’s inability to find his daughter. His face was buried on his palm. For several minute, William was quite.
He raised his head slowly to look at Scott and Frank who sat on the large seat opposite him. “It’s been twenty-four since my daughter has been missing and no one knows where she might be.” William said sounding so divested “she could be in some kind of danger right now.”
Frank added. “We’ve received reports earlier about a little girl who was brutally tortured to death in a very devastating way. I saw the body a while ago…” he then looked over at William “…I throw up at the terrifying sight of her body. She was murdered by a shifter. If my guess is correct, then the shifters in the city are stepping up their game here in the city, they are getting bolder.”
The sound of that made William even more worried. He then turned to face Scott, “…intensify effort to find my daughter and don’t stop until my daughter is found and brought to me.”
Scott immediately responded, “Sir, we don’t have enough information on what had happened at the hospital which led to your daughter’s disappearance. We don’t know where to start to look.”
“What do you suggest we do?” William asked sound pissed off “…we wait around until my daughter’s body is next they body they’d find lying around in the park?”
“Sir…” Scott spoke politely “…I suggest we wait for agent Derik to recover. He witnessed everything so he would provide us with all the information we need.”
Just then, Frank’s lab secretary busted right into the office without knocking. She interrupted them all.
“Miss Catherina…” Frank called out angry at her “what do you think you are doing? -Are you trying to get yourself fired?”
“I am so sorry sir for the way I barged in” she quickly apologized “…but you have to see this.”
The lady gently placed the laptop computer she was holding on the table in front of them all.
“This is the video footage from the security camera in Mrs. Eulich’s room. The one you asked me to look up for you” Catharina said then she pressed the play button on the computer.
The video started to play with Mrs. Eulich sleeping soundly, then the door pushed open and a man wearing an icy scary mask gently walked into the room then he closed the door cautiously making sure not to wake her up. Then the masked figure walked up to where she was sleeping. Taking a moment to examine her, he pressed his both hands on her neck. Mrs. Eulich woke up with a choking sound. She was terrified when she woke up to a masked man looking down at her and squeezing on her neck with his powerful arms. She struggled against his tight grip. She kept hitting his big powerful hand but he didn’t let her go. She began to hit his mask really hard. He quickly held her hands and Eulich inhaled heavily after he grip on her neck was reduced. The masked man tore her flesh with his powerful claws and Eulich let out a loud cry. Then he returned his both hands to her neck and strangled her. Eulich struggled to fight him but his grip was just too powerful. Finally, her neck snapped and her hands fell freely onto the bed. She died with her both eyes opened. When he was sure she was dead, he quickly moved away from her. Then the masked man then looked up at the camera mounted up just below the ceiling. He walked out of the room, the video ended.
There was complete silence in the room.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: A HOPELESS END
“When did this happen?”
William had his gaze fixed on Catherina
“This footage was captured several hours ago….” Catherina answered politely “…precisely 9:45am.”
“…a masked shifter?” frank said disappointedly “this is going to be very difficult. How are we going to place an ID on this masked man?”
Frank looked over at William “Mrs. Eulich was our best chance at finding these shifters and eliminating them but now she is gone, what do we do now sir?”
After a brief silence from William, he said “we wait… The mayor has appointed Lawrence Linus as president to take over command of the force in my place. Lawrence had promised the mayor to get rid of every shifter here in the city in just a week. We wait to see how he intends to do this.”
Kevin took a drive home in kern’s car. The afternoon sun was hot. They had both been quite for several minutes.
“How is she doing?” Kevin asked.
“…who are you talking about?”
“Natasha… How is she doing?”
Kern blurted. “Kevin, what you are doing, keeping Natasha to stay at my house is dangerous and reckless. When her dad finds out we were the ones holding his daughter, he will have us both lock up for sure.”
“We did not kidnap his daugh…”
“Natasha doesn’t like the fact that she is staying with me and she’s really making it so obvious. She wants to return to her dad but you won’t just let her leave. You are keeping her against her own will.”
“Kern, you of all people should understand why I am doing this. If she returns back to her dad, T-Rex will find her for sure.”
“Look Kevin, am trying to be rational here.” Kern said “…if T-Rex wants to get Natasha, he will get her and there is nothing you or anyone can do to stop him. But right now, we are risking both our necks keeping William’s daughter against her will. If he finds out what we are, you know what he will do to us.”
“It’s only temporary.” Kevin said “she won’t be staying at your place for too long.”
“Look Kevin, am done with all this bullshit!” kern said “I am not willing to risk my neck for someone who isn’t even grateful for what I am doing for her. As soon as I get home, am driving her straight to your place. You took her from the hospital. She’s your responsibility and not mine”
“No wait… first thing tomorrow morning, I promise I will come get her to return her back to her dad” Kevin pleaded “…just let her stay for the night.”
“�
�tomorrow?”
“Yes! Tomorrow, I promise.”
“Alright then, tomorrow morning it is.” Kern said.
Ken took a bend into another street. Kern face lit with recognition as he poked his head out through the window.
“Is this the street that leads to De-Laurel hospital?” he asked kern with an unsure look on his face.
“Yup...” kern answered.
“Pull over at the hospital” he immediately said. “I need to talk to Derik to see if he’s ok.”
Derik lay weakly on the bed. Even though he wasn’t fully awake, he was still conscious of his environment.
His eyes were slightly open. He heard the door slide open. His eyeball rolled to the corner to see who it was.
“Kevin…” he mumbled. Then he returned his head on the pillow facing the ceiling.
Kevin walked up to him then he took a seat beside his bed. It reminded him of the last time he was here also sitting on that very seat at that very spot talking to Natasha. Now here he was looking down at Derik. He looked over the bandage that had been wrapped over his chest.
“How long have you been up?” Kevin asked.
“…a couple of minutes ago… Is Natasha alright?” he heard Derik spoke out weakly.
“She is fine…”
“Her dad was here some minutes ago…” Derik managed to say “William said he hadn’t seen his daughter ever since the incidence here at the hospital. He’s been worried for her safety.”
Derik let out a groan from the pains he felt as he struggled to sit up. He squeezed his face bitterly, placing his hand on the spot that had been wrapped up by the bandage. Kevin quickly rushed to help him get up.
“…is Natasha with you?” Derik asked him.
A question he wasn’t expecting. For a moment there, Kevin was silent.
Derik read the expression of his face. “She’s with you, isn’t she?”
After a long silence he said “---her dad’s been worry sick about her and she’s been with you all the time?” he held his abdomen, squeezing his face at the sharp pain he felt.
“Careful…” Kevin cautioned quickly getting up to help him.
“Am fine” Derik immediately turned down his offer to help “I need to know why you kept her from seeing her dad. Do you know that could get you in trouble if her dad finds out?”
“The man that tried to kidnap her, and did this to you…” Kevin said “…is not human.”
“I already know what he is –we call them shifters” Derik said. “That’s the more reason why Natasha should be with her Dad right now.”
“First thing tomorrow morning I am going to return her back to her dad. I just wanted her to be safe for a while until things cool off a bit, that’s why I took her far away from her dad and everyone else just in case this shifter comes back .”
Derik looked over at Kevin for a moment then he said “you did not come all the way here just to talk about Tasha, did you?”
Kevin quickly reached for his pocket “No –I came so I could return your gun back to you.” he removed the gun which he’d tucked in his trouser, then he gently placed it on the bed beside Derik.
“you still had this with you. You are lucky the forces didn’t see you with it, you would have been locked away for possession of military grade weapon.”
He looked over at the table beside his bed then he said to Kevin “please put it down on the table over there.”
After placing the gun gently on the table, he reached for the paper drawings he had folded into his jacket. He took them out.
“Here…” he handed the folded paper over to Derik “there is something I need you to see.”
Derik opened up the neatly folded drawings and then examined them closely. “What are these?” he asked with a puzzled expression.
“…those are pictures and images I saw in my dream few nights before T-Rex showed up here at the hospital…”
Derik looked over the pictures on after another then he suddenly stopped when he recognized the houses on fires on one of the pictures.
“I know this place…” he uttered skeptically.
“…the houses you ordered to be burn down two days ago.” Kevin answered. “You know what puzzled me the most? –it’s the fact I saw it happen in my dreams just barely a day before I saw it happen in reality.”
Derik raised a brow at him. “…you already saw a vision of the burning houses before it even happened?”
Kevin nodded at him.
“Fascinating…” Derik remarked as he looked through the other drawings. Then Derik came upon the last picture of a man that resembled him crying out in pain.
Derik singled out the drawing from the rest then he looked at it closely “this is –me?” he said taking a closer look at the picture to have a better view of it
“…that was the moment right after T-Rex stabbed you in the gut.” Kevin said.
Derik looked up at Kevin, “…you saw this in your dreams too?” he asked in confusion, “When did you say you drew this again?”
“…just a few nights ago -the night before you rescued me from the thugs.”
“You saw me in your dreams even before I had met you?” Derik asked skeptically.
Kevin nodded at him.
“Have you been seeing this kind of dreams before?”
“No…” Kevin answered “this is the first.”
Just then his phone rang in his pocket. He took out his phone and then looked over it to see who is calling.
Mrs. Lena? He wondered why she is calling again.
He gently placed the phone over his ear. He was greeted by the same panicking voice of Mrs. Lena.
“He is still here… He doesn’t want to go away. Kevin, please come take me away from here. I am begging you.” Lena cried over the phone.
“Mrs. Lena please calm down! You are just hallucinating, there is no one there.” Kevin tried to comfort her over the phone but it wasn’t working. It just made her panic the more.
“Kevin, everyone thinks am crazy and out on my mind but you’re the only one who is going to listen. I need you to believe me…” she cried “…he is here and he has starting walking towards me.”
Her voice then intensified. “Please, help me. He is going to get me… he is coming straight at me.” He heard fear and panic in her voice. Then suddenly, he heard a crashing sound over the phone.
“Hello Lena, are you alright?” For a second Kevin didn’t hear any reply and that worried him “Mrs. Lena? What’s happening? –are you still there?” Kevin panicked.
He felt a relief when he heard soft sobbing from Mrs. Lena over the phone.
He breathe a sigh of relief, “…thank Goodness. For a second there I thought you’d done something crazy.”
Then he heard her speak in a deep unusual tone “I know you must also think am crazy…” she sobbed “…but am not. He is walking to me right now and no one believes me.”
Then he heard her sniffle, she suddenly stopped crying then she said “…I guess it up to me to put an end to all this…”
Something about the way she had sounded worried Kevin so much. “Mrs. Lena. Don’t do anything rash. Just wait for me. I will be there as soon as I can.” But she had already hanged up before Kevin could finish.
“Damn it!” Kevin cursed. Then he looked over at Derik. The look on Derik’s face was that of curiosity, like he wanted to understand what the fuss over the phone was all about.
“I will explain everything to you later, but right now I need to go.” He said in a hurry and then dashed out of the room quickly.
Kevin arrived at De Maria hospital. He had so many questions running through his mind. Something about the way Mrs. Lena kept insisting that there was someone there with her in that room worried him.
Could she be hallucinating about the masked man who had kidnapped her daughter or what if –she is really telling the truth and there is someone else with her in that room? What if Lena really isn’t going insane? What if we are the cra
zy ones for not being able to see what she sees? The thought sent cold chill down his spine which made him shiver.
But then something didn’t seem right …Is something like that even possible? -an invisible man?
He thought, “Who is this masked man really? Why does he choose to hide under a mask with a C mark carved out on it? What is he hiding? Why T-Rex didn’t wear a mask when he tortured Loretta? T-Rex just decided to reveal himself to me without hesitation, he didn’t choose to hide his face under the mask like the masked man had done, why? How is T-Rex related to this masked fellow?
Kevin soon found himself standing outside the door leading to Lena’s room. He slowly reached for the door knob, but then he stopped in mid air when he felt an awkward vibration come over him. Something about the cold silence from inside her room disturbed him.
He gently placed his ear over the door. It worried him the more when he heard nothing inside.
“Mrs. Lena?” he called out, knocking hard on the door, he heard no reply. “…are you in there?” he barked but he heard nothing.
Now, he knew something was definitely wrong. He felt it deep in his gut that something was terribly wrong... He quickly reached for the knob and burst the door open.
He froze at the entrance!
He looked up in horror at Mrs. Lena body hanging freely from the ceiling. He saw a fallen chair just beneath her feet. His eyes widened.
She had committed suicide?
CHAPTER TWELVE: REVENGE
Is this what Mrs. Lena meant when she said she’s going to put an end to all this?
She was going insane after all.
…there had been no masked man watching her all along. She was just showing a normal reaction after losing her daughter. We should have had her moved to the mental clinic as soon as we got the chance. –maybe then, she would still been alive.
A sick feeling had risen up in his stomach.
“Mrs. Lena…” Kevin wept. “…why?”
He picked up the fallen chair and climbed up on it bringing himself to the same height as Lena hanging there suspended in the air.
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