Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“He’s waking up.”
That voice. I recognized that voice—no. It couldn’t be.
“Hand me the needle.”
“Here.”
Someone else was here. With Steven. Holy fucking shit. Steven was in my house, he had a needle, and it sounded like he had Gabriel in pain. He was going to kill him here, right there on my bed. I would have gotten home to a silent house, walking straight to my bedroom, where I’d be the one who discovered a lifeless Gabe staring up at me, never seeing me again.
No. That wasn’t happening. No.
No, I thought to myself on repeat as I reached for the butcher knife, sliding it out of the wooden chopping block. Inch by terrorizing inch. Time slowed down to a torturous crawl. Like the minutes ticking by inside of a sterile waiting room, waiting to hear if a loved one had made it through a dangerous surgery. Time could contain such infinite possibilities, and inside of those possibilities were nightmarish things tucked away. My hand gripped onto the handle of the knife as if I were a free climber clinging onto the last purchase of rock I could grab before plummeting down to my death.
Another groan. He sounded more lucid. That’s when I heard him speak.
“Fuck you,” he said.
Gabriel. He was still alive. I could save him. I could get him out of this.
I was only a couple of feet away from my bedroom door. It was dark, but there was some kind of light source in there. Maybe a phone flash turned up toward the ceiling. Stark, bone-white. Shadows moved across it, flickering into the hallway like spirits spilling out from a portal.
“We aren’t those kinds of killers,” Steven said. “Now, this dose will keep you with us until midnight. Even if Tristan does find you before then, he won’t be able to do anything to save you. Then when midnight hits, we all find new beginnings.”
I could see someone close to the door. Not Steven. Smaller in frame, buzzed hair. He didn’t look very intimidating. He had to be someone Steven trusted, someone that was in this with him.
Someone I could use as leverage. It was another basic instinct kind of reaction. A lion cub hunting for the first time. A bumble of claws and teeth, except all I had was the butcher knife.
I grabbed the man and yanked him against me. I raised the knife and held it against his throat. Jesus Christ, I was holding a knife against a man’s throat. What the hell was happening.
And Gabe, he was there on my bed, in just a simple pair of white briefs, splayed out like a starfish. Just how all the victims were found. He was going to be next.
Holy fucking shit. What the fuck.
The man in my arms wasn’t struggling. In front of me was Steven, his face lit up by the ghostly white glow of a phone flashlight. My brain could hardly process what was happening. Shock made my legs turn to cement, which helped keep me from collapsing.
“Tristan… I didn’t want you finding out like this.” Steven put a hand up in the air, needle glinting in his hand. “Let Mason go.”
“Mason?” That name sounded familiar… From the bar. The Mason we had interviewed. The one who said he’d slept with the Midnight Chemist and got away.
“Let. Him. Go.”
Steven’s face twisted in a way I didn’t recognize him. I’d known him for close to a year now, having become good friends with the new guy in Atlanta who wanted some gay and bookish friends. He had been in my house, shared meals with me, had drinks with me.
“Why?” was all I could get out of my dry mouth. I glanced at Gabe, who seemed to be shaking off whatever drug he’d been given. His eyes were wide and focused on the knife in my hand. He wasn’t tied down to the bed. Maybe I could stall long enough for him to be able to get up and help me.
“Because I live with a monster in my chest, and I need to feed it, Trist. I have to. But I chose a way that wasn’t as painful as others. It’s a mercy.”
“It’s a mercy to stalk and torture your victims?” I asked. The man in my arms squirmed, but I held him a little tighter, unable to press the knife that close to his skin. I really hoped he couldn’t feel me shaking.
“That part is a mercy for me. It gives me a thrill I rarely ever feel. And with you, Tristan, the thrill was something I’d never experienced before. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve hung out so much or because you’re just that special. But Mason and I, we both fell for you.”
I shook my head. “Fucking sick. So the surveillance video? The masked man in my house? That was you or Mason?”