Most of the houses there were made out of wood. There was less movement on the street and there were no vehicle plying the road. “
“It is only a handful of individuals living down here. No wonder T-Rex choose this little lonely street for his hideout.” Kevin observed.
Derik stopped in front of a little bungalow then looked over it through his window “is this it?” he asked Kevin.
Kevin looked over the map he held in his hands then he looked at the building. “Yes… this is it.” He confirmed.
“Doesn’t quite look like a place where a psychopath killer would choose to live.” He turned off the engine and they both got of the car.
Derik drew his gun and then walked cautiously to the bungalow with Kevin following him behind quietly. He climbed up the stairs quietly so as not to alert anyone inside.
Reaching up to the door, Derik pressed his shoulder against it while holding up his gun very close to his chest. He counted to three, then he forced the door open with a powerful kick.
He quickly moved into the building pointing his gun in every direction as if expecting to see someone but there was nobody there. He quickly dashed into another room, it seemed empty. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling.
“I don’t think anyone has been in here for a long time.” Kevin said as he got into the room to have a look around.
Derik then opened a door leading to another room. He was astonished at what he saw inside. There was nothing in the room except hundreds of pictures that hung on the wall.
The whole room was covered with several pictures of people in a picture frame. One of the picture’s on the wall caught Kevin’s attention. It was a picture of Mirabel with a big red X drawn over it.
“Wait… isn’t this Mirabel, the first torture victim? What’s her photo doing down here and why’s there a big X marked over it?” Derik asked with a puzzled look on his face.
Derik’s attention was quickly deviated to the next picture frame beside Mirabel’s. “I know this lady…” Derik stuttered as he looked up at the picture of Mrs. Eulich with a big red X marked on it.
“I don’t understand…” Kevin said looking at all the pictures that covered the walls of that room. “…I know most of this people from fallout city before I moved over to this one.”
Kevin’s eyes fell on the pictures of both Leonard and Murphy placed beside each other. Both photographs were crossed out with a big red X mark.
Kevin ran the tip of his finger over the picture and then he looked over it. His finger was stained with red ink which was used to draw the X mark over the picture. “This one was marked just recently…”
Almost immediately, his eye fell on a photo beside Leonard’s. “Wait, isn’t this Sam McClain?” Kevin said looking over at it “…and unlike some of the pictures I’ve seen, this one is unmarked.”
Derik also examined the picture.
“I finally get it…” Derik shuddered. “This is definitely T-Rex’s layer. This room is where he keeps pictures of people he intends to kill and those he had already killed.”
“This one’s here with the big Red X…” Derik said pointing at both Leonard and Murphy’s pictures “…are the victims he had already tortured and the ones without the Red X mark are the ones he haven’t tortured yet.”
“…which means Sam is still alive.”
“For now yes, and it won’t be long before Sam would be found lying around dead on the street.”
Kevin noticed an unmarked photo that was placed a bit different from the rest. He took it out from its picture frame to examine it closely. It was a picture of a woman in her late thirties whom he had never met before.
Kevin showed it to Derik “any idea who this woman might be?” Derik took the picture from him and then examined it closely. He squeezed his face as he tried to run a quick scan in his head on who the woman might be but nothing came to mind.
“I don’t know who that is…” Derik said.
“…I found her photo hanging deferent from the rest like someone had put it in there recently.”
Derik then noticed there was something written behind the picture. He quickly turned the picture and then noticed an address written just below it, 44 Rashbrow Street.
“You think this might be where she’s living?” Kevin uttered looking over the address.
Derik said in contradiction, “…or maybe a possible address of where T-Rex is going to kill the lady on this picture?” Derik folded the paper into his pocket “…whatever it is, we need to check it out. Whoever this lady is, her life is in mortal danger.”
“T-Rex has also targeted Natasha’s dad…” Kevin said looking over the unmarked photo of Mr. William on the wall.
“We have to warm him.” Derik took out his phone and then took the photograph of William picture hanging on the wall. Then he began a video tape to record every photograph in that room.
Kevin felt a sudden heaviness in his heart when his eye fell on a picture of himself on one of the picture frame. It was placed alongside a picture of Natasha. They were both unmarked.
Kevin picked out his own photograph from the picture frame and then stared down at it bluntly. He tried to recall when he had taken this very picture.
Then it finally hit him…
“-a week ago.”
Back there at the principal’s office when he was filling up enrollment register, his photograph was taken and then stored in the school register.
-but how did T-Rex managed to get his hands on it? He wondered.
Looking over the picture in his hands, he felt a cold chill go down his spine when he realized this was the exact same photograph he had taken back then.
He suddenly noticed there was something written at the back, then he turn it over.
‘26th April’ was written at the back with a red ink.
Kevin was stun.
26th April’ was his birthday.
Derik took down Natasha’s photo from the picture frame and then looked over it. Then he turn it over and the same date was written on it ‘26th April’. He frowned. Then he showed it to Kevin. “You know what this mean right?”
“Today is April 22nd” he said looking over at Kevin “T-Rex is definitely going to show up on your birthday and then kidnap both you and Natasha. We have to stop him before that happens.”
“There are so many unmarked pictures in here. We don’t know who T-Rex’s next target might be…” Derik said turning in circles and looking up at all the picture in the wall.
“shhhh….” Kevin quickly said trying to get Derik to be quit. “Do you hear that?” Kevin said almost in a whisper.
“Hear what?” Derik said now moving cautiously around the room.
“-just listen.” Kevin said in a whisper.
There was total silence in the room. That was when they both heard a faint continuous beeping sound that echoed across the room.
Kevin face squeezed into a frown as he tried to listen “what the hell is that beeping?”
Derik’s eye widened, “it’s a bomb.”
He saw the bomb that had been wired to the door blinking red light. “Quick! Get out now!” Derik yelled out to Kevin. Quickly reached for the door, they both jumped of the building.
Almost immediately, the house blew up in a loud outburst of flame behind them. The explosion threw them both on the floor with severe burn wounds behind their backs
Taking a moment to express their pains on the floor, they slowly began to transform. Hairs slowly sprouted out of their skin covering the burn wounds. Moments after, the hairs vanished inside. The burn wounds on their bodies were healed completely.
They both stood up and then stared at the building which was now going up in flame. They were both amazed at how they had narrowly escaped death.
“I think it’s a timer bomb. We must have activated it when we pushed the door open.” Derik said.
“T-Rex almost had us both…” Kevin said
“We can’t beat him on our own. We need help…” Deri
k said “…I will talk to the president of the taskforce. We’d need all the help we can get to stop T-Rex.”
“I’d told you already, our information computer system was hijacked by an unknown individual which caused a lot of damages to us” Mac Georgery sassed at Kevin. “We lost a lot of student bio data this week.”
Kevin was engaged in a heated argument with Principal Mac Georgery in his office.
“Bullshit!” Kevin wasn’t buying what he was saying. “…that doesn’t explain how my photograph ended up in the hands of a dangerous killer.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kevin slammed the photo on the table before Mac Georgery. “This is the photo that was captured into your student database when I first came here to be enrolled. I found it in the hands of a man who wants me dead. How do you explain something like that?”
“Whoever hijacked our computers could have it. It could be anyone…”
Kevin leaned in close to him. “…or maybe you handed over to him yourself?”
Mac Georgery slammed the table. “I won’t hear any more of this nonsense. Out now before I call security.”
Kevin grabbed the photo from his desk and abruptly stood up to leave.
“… and the moment you walk out that door, don’t even bother coming back to this institution.”
Kevin stood over the door for a moment. Opening the door, he walked out briskly. He then slammed the door. A picture frame fell from the door and scattered to pieces as it hit the floor.
It was getting dark and the sun was going down. Kern went on his regular routine of arranging the house first before he went over to the kitchen to prepare dinner for two. He had gotten used to living alone before Kevin recently moved in to stay with him.
While he put the dish on fire, he began to reminisce over the day they had both met Cedric a week after Kevin witnessed the gruesome murder of his fiancée, Loretta. That incidence had left Kevin in shock for weeks.
Cedric just happened to show up in Loretta’s burial ceremony. That was when they had met him. Kevin was deteriorating slowly after Loretta had been buried. The painful memories of how she had been brutally tortured to death kept coming back to him but Cedric helped conceal him until he got better.
Few days after, he invited Kevin to come live with him. Ever since then, Kevin had been living with Cedric. Kern had been going over to Cedric’s place to see how Kevin was doing.
Cedric knew what Kevin was before he had asked him to come live with him and he told them both about it. He had promised not to tell anyone. Kern had always wondered why Cedric agreed to let Kevin live in his home even after he knew Kevin was a shifter. It was only a month after Kevin had been living with him that Cedric trusted Kevin enough to reveal to him he was also a shifter. And ever since then, Kevin had been living with him treating him like his dad which he never had.
Cedric then suggested leaving fallout city saying the change of environment could help Kevin move on and forget about what had happened. It was only a week after they’ve moved into Burnout city that he found out about Beocraft and Cedric being a part of it.
Cedric behavior towards him started to change. He became colder towards Kevin and that scared the hell out of him. That was when Kevin finally left Cedric’s house that night.
Suddenly Kern heard a loud thud on the roof which drifted him out of his thought. He caught a glimpse of a shadow running across his window. He quickly walked towards that window, leaving the food to burn on fire. When he had looked out through the window, there was nothing there. He quickly shut the windows and then locked it.
He heard a thud out through the front door which startled him. He stood there looking over the door, waiting to hear another thud but there was nothing. He then began to cautiously walk towards the door.
“Kevin?” kern called out as he walked towards the door. “Is that you?”
There was no reply.
He quickly opened the door, the cooled night breeze fell on his face. There was nobody standing outside. He stepped out into the dark and then walked around to his window where he thought he saw something. There was nothing there. He then returned back to the front door.
He was terrified when the saw the door wasn’t the way he had left it. His door was opened like someone just walked out of the house.
“Hello?” kern called out, his eyeballs moving around the house swiftly. “Is anybody in there?”
Suddenly five hooded figures jumped from the ceiling and then surrounded him. They were all wearing masks. Kern quivered at the sight of them. His chest started heaving rapidly as he stared into their masks.
“Who are you? What do you want?” his voice quivered.
He turns around in circles looking at the masked figures that stood there surrounding him. “You want money… please take it just don’t hurt me.” Kern cried for a moment.
For a long second, they all stood there looking at kern coldly from their masks. Kern felt an arm clutched around his wrist grabbing him tight. Another hand came from behind and wrapped around his neck while another quickly held his both arms to retrain his arm movement.
One of them came forth and emptied a bowl of hot boiling oil over his head. Kern let out a loud painful scream as he struggled through the tight grip of the figures that held his hands.
The oil burnt through his hair rolling down forehead and shrinking his skin. Kern gasped when a short knife was stabbed through his chest. His eyes were wide open in pains and his eyeballs were shaking.
The hooded figure tore through his chest bringing the knife to his stomach, just below his abdomen. His guts poured out on the floor. Another figure then came forth and struck his hands into kern’s chest to reach for his heart. Grabbing his heart firmly, the masked figure quickly pulls it out and kern’s screaming immediately died out. He was dead.
Kern closed his eyes and fell in his arm. The figure dropped him. Kern hit the ground with a thud. They all dispatched quickly leaving Kern to lie in his own pool of blood.
A masked figure was left standing in front of kern’s tortured body. He had a C mark carved out on his masks. The masked figure pulled out a little note and slid it into kern’s pocket, and then he walked away.
On the note was an inscription ‘Everybody You Love Dies.’
CHAPTER TWENTY: LOSING HIS MIND
It was a hot sunny morning. A car drove in through the school gate and then parked in front of the school building. The car engine died out.
Natasha picked up her kits to get out. She didn’t seem happy.
“Natasha, tell me what’s wrong?” William called out to her.
“Nothing… am just glad you’re finally out of hospital” she said avoiding his gaze.
William cupped his hands around her jaw. “I know when something is bothering you darling. Tell me what it is?”
After a short silence, she exhaled loudly. Looking over at the two armed men sitting at the back, she said “dad I appreciate you trying to protect me, but getting me a bodyguard… that’s way too much.”
“Someone is after you and I don’t know who it is. Right now this is the only way I could think of to protect you when you are away from me. I can’t risk anyone kidnapping you.”
“I thought you hired Derik to protect me.”
“Sweetie, I am having a little trust issues with Derik right now. I can’t trust him to protect you.”
“I’ll see you later Dad.” She mumbled and then got out without turning to look at him.
William looked over the rear mirror at the two armed officers sitting behind him.
“Bill, Steven, make sure my daughter is safe.”
The two men nodded and then left the car. William drove away. They followed her behind everywhere she went. She didn’t like the ideas of her dad getting her a bodyguard. Even when she had told him she would be fine, he had still insisted that she go with them.
School seemed to have changed a lot since the last time she was here. There were now a lot of stude
nts there in school, both old and new faces alike. She was now feeling embarrassed from the way her colleagues stopped to stare, when she walked pass them.
Natasha walked into her classroom block. All eyes fell on her as she walked in with the two armed men following her behind. Her cheek was red with embarrassment as Bill and Steven stood guard at the entrance of her class room.
“Look who’s finally back to school…” She heard Dreda call out to her.
“Dreda!” Natasha hugged her excitedly.
Madelia tickled her from behind causing Natasha to giggle “oh my God…” Natasha said with a chuckle “you always do that, Madelia. One day I am really going to break your nose.”
She chuckled as she hugged her too looking thrilled to see them both.
“What with the big grumpy armed dudes you brought with you to school today?” Dreda folded her arms looking over at the armed men that stood there at the entrance “damn….your dad got no chills. Just a single attempt to kidnap his precious daughter, he’s hired hitmen to protect his daughter.” They laughed at her mockingly.
Natasha rolled her eyes at him. “I tried to talk him out of getting me a body guard but he wouldn’t just listen to me… beside it wasn’t just a single kidnap attempt. This guy made another attempt to kidnap me again yesterday and this time at my house. My dad was hurt pretty bad trying to defend me.”
“Oh my God!” Dreda gasped “…is he alright?”
“My dad is fine…” Natasha answered “…at least he is now back on his feet again.”
“What happened to you… we heard some guy took you from the hospital. We were so worried. So glad you are fine.” Madelia said with concern look over her face.
“No, he didn’t take me… I went with him willingly.” Natasha quickly said “beside it wasn’t just some guy. It was Kevin.”
Madelia gasped holding out her mouth “wow… that’s so cool.”
“…he took me to his friend’s place to stay there for a while until things settle down a bit, then he brought me home to my dad.” Natasha said.
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