Chapter 30
Thirty
Rafael
Someone’s here. Minutes after Henry fell back to sleep, Huey started going ballistic and then ran into the room, darting right under the bed.
I sit up in bed and stiffen as glass shatters.
The wind picks up outside and the cold air sweeps in down the hallway.
Are they inside or are they waiting to make sure the coast is clear?
Is it Travis or is it the person who thought they were sending me a message by trashing my house? Was I followed here?
Staying where I am, I look down at the peacefully sleeping man beside me and pull the blankets back up.
Shutting my eyes shut, I try to calm my breathing, begging for sleep to take me.
Rustling sounds come from the living room and I turn on my side, rocking my body.
Come on. My body is weighing heavy with exhaustion, and yet I can’t relax enough to get it to the state I need it to be in.
Can I do what I do when I’m sleeping while I’m awake? Can I defend myself and Henry when the time comes for me to, or will I turn into a coward. And if I am able to hurt them this way, will it make me hate myself more? How could I justify my actions then?
Something crashes down the hall and Henry stays sleeping.
I press a kiss to his hair and bundle him up in the blankets.
He makes a sweet humming sound, and I know if the time comes for me to stop someone from harming him, whether awake or not, I’ll have no problem doing what I must in order to keep him safe.
He wiggles under the covers, his face tensing briefly before relaxing.
As soon as he’s back to snoring, my gaze goes back to the dark hallway, and I step onto the ground.
With quiet, careful steps, I slowly walk out of the room and shut the door behind me.
My heart jumps in my throat when I see the reflection of someone in the glass cabinet, and I press my back to the door, watching as they pocket my phone.
They’re wearing a covering on their face and are dressed in black from head to toe.
Another person joins then seconds later, looking around as I continue to hide in the dark, waiting until they’re away from the cabinet to move closer to the kitchen.
“They’re in the room,” the guy in blue shoes says. They look familiar but I can’t pinpoint where I’ve seen them.
“They both sleeping?” gray mask asks, and the other nods.
“Yeah. Both snug as a bug.”
Blue shoes huffs. “For now, until he sneaks away and comes for the last two people on his list.”
“You think he knows?”
“About what?” blue shoes asks.
“You know . . .” The other guy goes quiet and blue shoes folds the bottom of his mask up to run his fingers over his lips before kissing them.
“You worry too much. I doubt he has any clue. You know why he’s doing this.”
“Because of what . . . because of that night. He was sleeping and I didn’t think he remembered.”
“He remembered something.”
“What if it isn’t even him—”
“It is. You saw how he slammed that rock into the back of that guy’s head.”
Gray mask nods. “Yeah, you’re right. If we don’t do this then that’ll be us.”
“Exactly. He hasn’t moved on like he wants us all to believe. Rory is gullible and he’ll trust anything. Ask me how I know?”
My heart stills in my chest. Hunter. This man in Henry’s kitchen, caressing and kissing someone else, is Hunter.
Who else could it be? They’re the last two left living from that night.
They’re here to stop me from finishing whatever I felt I needed to deep down inside.
They said I knew what they did. My stomach shifts.
I thought I was the one who did something.
I stumble forward and one of them jumps. “Did you hear that?”
Blue shoes looks around and lets out a sigh. “That might be out little sleepwalker. You think we can get one last show out of him before we make him permanently go away?”
“I . . .” The other guy licks his lips and slides down his mask. “We can always try. Think what it’ll do for ratings on the site.”
Blue shoes laughs. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. Thinking and imagining how pathetic he’ll look on his knees, moaning before I cut those eyes out of his head.”
“We better hurry, then. Before the other one wakes up.”
“Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. We could have fun with him too, and make him think everything that happened was a bad dream or that it was Hernandez who did it.”
“Your ideas are always better than mine.”
“I know they are, baby. That’s why we always go with mine first.” Who I assume is Hunter pulls a knife from his pocket, and who I can only presume is Lucky removes a bottle of spray from his.
“Should I go first, or you?” Lucky asks, rocking on the heels of his feet.
“I’ll go and make sure everyone’s sound asleep, and then you come in with the cuffs.”
“Rope too?”
“Yeah. We at least want to make sure the little one is secure.”
Their footsteps inch closer and I jump into the bathroom, hiding behind the door.
I grip the knob, trying not to show myself too early, but it’s killing me knowing how close they are to my Honey.
The bedroom door creaks open and I dig my nails into my thigh, shutting my eyes as I press my feet harder to the ground.
“Oh, he’s a pretty one. We’ll definitely get plenty of interest for him.”
I grind my teeth, turning on the light and searching for any sharp object I can find. There’s a metal nail file and razor blade in the top drawer, but that’s it. It’ll have to do.
“Wait . . . I thought you said they were both here?”
“I swear they were. Maybe Raf’s already wandering around somewhere.”
“That’s exactly what we don’t want,” Hunter spits out.
“I’ll go find him. Stay with princess.”
“Don’t worry. I assure you we’ll both be just fine.”
“What are you doing?”
“Giving the fans a little sneak peak of what to look forward to. Fuck, he’s sexy, and fully naked too with bite marks on those milky thighs.”
I bite back a growl, and I’m about to burst through the door when one of them screams. Huey grunts and the other starts cursing. “What the fuck is that? He has a pig?”
“Dude, I told you he has a pet.”
“I was thinking a fucking dog.”
“Raf,” Henry says groggily.
“No, baby cakes. It’s someone I think you’re going to enjoy a lot more.”
“I . . . who . . . Travis? Is that you?”
“Who the hell is Travis?” Hunter’s voice carries.
“You aren’t . . .” Henry’s voice trails off then he starts yelling for me, and then one of the other guys screams again. Huey growls and it sounds like a body is hitting the floor.
“Get it off me,” Lucky screams.
“Don’t hurt him, please,” Henry begs.
“How about if I hurt you instead?”
Henry’s scream is all it takes for me to knock the door down. Lucky, being in the way goes down with it, groaning as he shoves the wooden door off him, his mask crooked on his face.
“Oh look, the star of the show,” Hunter says, his eyes meeting mine. “Are you asleep or awake?”
I don’t answer, my nose flaring and my breathing cutting at my throat. His head tilts and he wraps an arm around Henry’s neck, sliding the sharp edge of the blade down his tear-stained cheek. Henry’s eyes shut as his body shakes. “Please. Don’t.”
“I love when they beg, don’t you, L?” he says to a disgusted Lucky who’s struggling to stand upright.
“Yes, and I especially will tonight.” He rubs at his face and adjusts his mask.
“Yeah, pretty sure we both will.” Hunter trails his knife down Henry’s chest and something ugly snaps inside me.
“Is he just gonna stand there?” Lucky says, walking toward me, and the moment Huey moves in on him again, I use the opportunity to shove the nail file into his throat.
“What the fuck,” Hunter yells, dropping Henry to rush forward.
Lucky grabs at his bleeding neck and makes the mistake of yanking the file out. Blood gushes from the wound and he gurgles, swaying side to side.
“What did you do?” Panic rises in Hunter’s voice. “Baby. Fuck . . . no . . . baby.” He reaches Lucky, taking off his jacket to apply pressure to his neck. Judging by Lucky’s pupils blowing and face going still he’s too late.
“No,” Hunter screams. “This wasn’t supposed to go down like this. Baby, wake up. Get up, please.” He kisses Lucky’s pale face after slipping the mask off. “Please,” he whispers.
Henry stands behind him with a heavy statue in his hands and lifts it as high as he can before slamming it down over his head.
Hunter crashes to the floor holding Lucky.
He tries to scramble forward, reaching for his head, but Henry hits him again.
He keeps attacking, beating on him until there’s a loud crack.
Blood goes everywhere, all over Henry, and splashing my face as I lean beside to him to grab him and hold his arms still.
“It’s okay now, Honey. It’s okay. You got him. He won’t be hurting either one of us after all.” His face lowers, chest rising and falling as he catches his breath. Tears pour down his face as he looks at me before jumping into my arms. I hold him tight, kissing his face and hair.
“It’s going to be okay now. You did so good. You didn’t even need to see better than he could to take him down.”
“I . . . I followed his cries and his voice. I used my other senses.”
“And you did amazing. You’re amazing. You saved us.”
He smiles into my shoulder. “I kind of think we owe it to Huey causing all the distractions, but sure, I’ll take the credit for now.”
I laugh. “I’m sorry about all this. I’m sorry I brought them here.”
He pulls away from me, eyes lifting. “They were here for you?”
“Yeah. I know them—knew them,” I correct. “Or at least, I thought I did.”
He nods. “It sucks thinking you know someone only to realize later how wrong you are.”
“It does,” I agree. “I should call the cops.”
He grabs my arm, stopping me from getting too far. “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
He bites his bottom lip. “They won’t find anything else if they come here?”
“Like?”
He lowers his face, shuffling his hands. “I know what you did to that robber.”
“What?” My throat goes dry.
“It’s okay,” he assures me, taking my hand. “You had to. Just like we both had to now.”
I open my mouth to speak and stop when sirens blare in the background. “The cops are already coming. I didn’t call them.”
“Someone must have,” Henry says, stepping back and then lifting his foot when he lands in a puddle of blood. His face winces.
“Let’s get sone clothes on you before they get here.”
“Yeah. Good thinking.” I lead him to the bathroom, clean him up, and get him a fresh set of clothes.
As he’s dressing, I go through Lucky’s and Hunter’s phones, making sure there isn’t anything on them that can tie me to the other murders.
I’m disgusted by what I find instead. Videos of men and women of all ages.
Tied up. Some bleeding, most begging, while others are passed out not knowing they’re being violated.
Snuff films. The sick sons of bitches were making them and profiting from the twisted, fucked-up shit they were doing.
Rory’s in some of them. It’s not his videos that stop me in my tracks, though.
It’s mine. I’m the very first one. For the first time, I’m seeing the truth.
I didn’t do anything bad that night. They did.
My subconscious remembered and I was slowly hunting them down, and now they’ve been stopped for good.
I leave the videos. Every single one. Other than the video they made of me, nothing else has my name on it.
No texts or anything. I really wasn’t trying to hurt Rory when I snuck into his room that night with a knife.
I was there for Hunter. Rory pushed the wrong guy away and all this time I thought he did the right thing choosing someone else, Someone better.
I was wrong, and man, do I hate how wrong I was.
I hate it because it put Rory’s life more at risk and led to them almost hurting Henry.
I gawk at the screen a little longer, my stomach plummeting as I watch myself attempting to shove them away in my sleep. Knots form in my chest and Henry places his hand on mine, his eyes watering all over again.
“It was never you. You were never the monster. They were.”
“I still don’t know if I can be trusted.”
“I do,” he says with conviction strong in his voice. “The man in that video believed the wrong people, but I won’t make the same mistake, because to me you could never be the wrong anything.”
I stop the video and toss the phone on the floor before pulling him into my arms. Sirens grow louder around us, lights flashing brightly through the windows.
I never started what they accused me of.
What they made me think I did. But I was the one who helped put an end to it, and if there’s anyone else who took part in this, I’ll find them too.
I lost trust in myself while awake, so another part of me took over.
Another part of me made it right for both of us.