Chapter 9

Dave was right, that Jeremy wouldn’t go straight to Gail’s party because no one in their house had answered his calls. He knew him very well, and because of that, he could always deceive him so conveniently. 

“It’s time to act again.” Dave smirked as he walked to his bed. He would pretend he’s already sleeping.

Downstairs, the deafening silence began to haunt Jeremy. It was unusually quiet. He rocketed to the third floor and reached his dad’s room. His dad was already deep in his sleep. Though he wanted to feel good about his dad sleeping soundly, he couldn’t, for it’s very suspicious. 

Next, he went to Ms. Fei’s room. Like his dad, the old lady was already sleeping. He felt more uneasy because after he moved to another city for college, the old woman wouldn’t go to bed yet unless she would see him park his car outside whenever he would go home. Sighing, he fixed her blanket and left quietly. 

Outside Yenny’s room, he knocked on the door a few times until decided to open it. As expected, Yeny wasn’t in her room. He couldn’t describe the nervousness in him while wandering his eyes around to check if there’s something unusual in the room. But none at all. He stepped outside, and the eerie and gloomy quietness in the hallway had him getting chills all over his body. 

Now, the last room. Jeremy paused first in front of the door and prepared himself to get tormented, for Dave’s misery was in there. As he came in, he saw his brother already sleeping. But how when his worsening condition for the past months had been making him restless and sleepless? Jeremy’s suspicion multiplied. 

He observed the room without making any noise, and to his big surprise, there was already an empty spot on the bookshelf in the corner. Dave’s box was no longer there. It’s already gone. He left the room with haste. 

Back in his car, he called his private investigator friend and asked him to track Yenny’s number. A moment later, he was informed the number was already unattended and its last tracked location was at her apartment in Lewis City. That was in the afternoon when she had called him. 

The fact that Yenny had been acting strange had him thinking she already knew the horrible truth about his mother’s devastating death. But how could she possibly see what’s inside the box when Dave had been very cautious and sensitive about someone touching his things? Jeremy, both tormented and agitated, asked himself as he drove to Gail’s. 

Reaching the party, Jeremy told his best friends right away that Yenny wouldn’t come, and even about her unusual behavior. But for Dave’s sake, he chose not to share with them the suspicious quietness in their house, especially about the missing box, for no one should know about it.

At Sean’s residence, Yenny was still unconscious from passing out a while ago due to physical and emotional exhaustion. Such unfortunate timing made it easy for Dave to hide from Jeremy the brutality he had been doing to Yenny. He was saved again, like how he got away with his horrendous crime four years ago. 

“Yenny.. Wake up now,” Dave whispered in her ear. “You should hear how you saved me.” He laughed monstrously while staring at her when it suddenly occurred to him that the night was getting deeper. He needed to convince Yenny now to shut her mouth and give the box back to him because Jeremy wouldn’t stay at Gail’s party that long. His brother would return home sooner.

Dave stopped laughing and shook Yenny, enough to wake her up. But she couldn’t open her eyes despite regaining her consciousness. 

“I must have scared you to death. I’m very sorry.” Dave caressed her pale and cold face.

That disgusted Yenny and chilled her bones. Dave was a monster to her now no matter what. 

“Come on, Yenny..” He began to lose his temper, for he’s back to feeling agitated with the thought of Jeremy returning home from the party. “You’ll wake up now or I’ll hurt Ms. Fei?”

Yenny opened her eyes right away and panickedly got up despite the crippling terror covering her again.

Dave rose up from bending down, then faced her, smiling like the most horrible villain in movies. “What exactly did you see?”

“N..Nothing..” Her voice trembled. 

“Tell me!!!” Dave furiously screamed, like a violent thunder in the middle of a destructive storm. 

But Yenny suddenly plucked a little courage to face him bravely with the thought of the people she had to protect. If she let her fear consume her, she wouldn’t be able to escape from him. He would keep living with freedom he shouldn’t have been getting to begin with.

She looked into the monster’s terrifying eyes. “Why did you kill your mom?? Why??”

Dave aggressively grabbed her by the shirt, grinning dangerously. “Why are you still asking me?? You already know the answer! You opened the box!!”

Heavy tears began to drown her face. She was in torment, not only from Dave’s brutal hands but also from the painful truth about Leona Sean’s death. It was so cruel and devastating. 

“I guess you didn’t finish reading everything?” Dave laughed all of a sudden, still grabbing her by the shirt. “Why?? Are those too horrifying??” He ungrabbed her shirt but ferociously pinned her against the wall, making her lose strength again. “You shouldn’t have opened the box in the first place if you couldn’t handle the truth!!” He was getting more and more terrifying. 

Yenny didn’t know him anymore, and it was very painful to see the guy she used to admire and love become devilish. She cried harder. 

“Stop crying!!” He punched the wall. 

“Your mom.. She’s a good person, Dave! She had the purest heart..” She couldn't stop crying sorrowfully. “But why did she have to die that way?? Why did she have to suffer from the hands of her own son!! You’re a horrible monster!!” As her painful cries thundered in the big room, she glared at him. She had to win over this beast because if not, she would end up like Leona Sean. “You can no longer get away with your crime, Dave.”

He gave her a murderous stare. “Didn’t you just say that I’m a horrible monster?? Then that means I can harm those who try to mess with me. Aren’t you scared??” 

Face to face with Dave, she smirked at him. “If there is someone who must be scared, it is you!”

He pulled her hair and met her eyes with fury. “Where is the box?? Where are you hiding it??”

She smirked at him widely. “You can no longer bury the truth, Dave.” 

“Shut your fucking mouth!!” He banged her to the wall so viciously she fell on the ground powerless. He bent down and pulled her hair again. “Where is my box?? Answer me!!” Angrily, he pulled her to the other side of the wall and threw her against it so forcefully her body felt like tearing to pieces now. 

But all these pains were nothing compared to what Leona Sean had to endure back then. Yenny should keep enduring everything just to survive this dangerous situation. She had to keep provoking Dave for one thing. His confession to his crime. 

A while ago in her room, as she was hastily gathering her stuff, she suddenly remembered what Jeremy would always tell her. And that was to have a presence of mind when facing danger because getting emotional would only worsen the situation. Not only that, she also remembered the thing that Jeremy had given her before. A pen-shaped voice recorder. She rushed to her drawer and took the device, then put it in her bag. 

“That bag..” Dave suddenly mentioned it right to her face, piercing her eyes with his devilish glare. “Why the fuck are you staring at it??” He took a step back and walked to where Yenny’s bag was. 

Yenny held her breath the instant Dave took her bag from the floor. No, he shouldn’t see the voice recorder, she gulped nervously. 

Dave turned to her abruptly, like a violent tornado, and slammed her bag to her side. “Don’t you dare escape from me!!” More furious, he grabbed her by the shirt. “Where is my box?? Tell me now!!”

“You asked me to burn, didn’t you?” She had to get his confession before she died from his hands. 

“Did you really do it??”

Yenny nodded.

He grabbed her shirt more strongly. “What do you think of me?? Stupid??”

“I really burned it,” she said firmly. 

“You didn’t, fucking liar!!” He banged her to the wall once again, and Yenny was already losing the remaining strength in her. “Tell me where it is or I will kill you!!”

She gave him an insulting glare. “Go ahead, kill me! But if you do, how can you dispose of my body when you can’t even go outside? Bury me here?” She smirked. “You can no longer kill someone and fake it as a suicide. Like what you did four years ago.”

Dave laughed anxiously, going back and forth. He was now getting paranoid because Yenny’s becoming fearless and Jeremy might arrive any moment.

He paused. then looked at Yenny. He thought of a good strategy.

From a distance, he smiled at her gently. “I’m sorry. I was cruel for threatening you. I only said that because you angered me.” He moved close to her. “You have taken good care of me, you even quit school for my sake, so how can I do such a cruel thing to you?”

“But you did it to your mom.” Big tears rushed down her face again. “You killed her!”

“Yes, I killed my mom! I killed her!! So what??”

That’s it, Yenny had just succeeded in making him confess. She glanced at her bag down on the floor. Now, what she had to do was escape or to wait for Jeremy to return home.

“Why did you kill your precious mom??”

“Stop asking! You already know why!!” Dave was in fury again, making him push her down the floor. Then he bent, grinning wickedly while pulling her hair. “You will be in so much pain if you don’t–”

“You're not hurting me, but your mom!” Yenny wanted him to drown in the deepest shame, guilt and remorse. 

But Dave no longer felt those because he’s already a heartless monster. “I kept hurting her while she’s still alive, so why worry about her when she’s already dead? Don’t you know that mom is even thankful to me because I ended her misery?” 

Yenny couldn’t believe that the guy she used to admire had become a heartless monster. “Aunt Leona is not thankful to you but is totally disgusted because you become so cruel. And I’m sure that if I expose what you did to her, everyone will hate you for life. Especially your dad! Uncle Tony will no longer consider you his son. And Jeremy? He will definitely do his best to make you rot in jail.” 

Dave’s furious eyes suddenly dimmed with pain. The words he had just heard from Yenny were so painful he began to wail. All the demons in his head also began to torture him with their deafening murmurs and echoes. He was in the deepest torment now, wailing on his knees. And that’s when Yenny hurriedly got up and ran out of the dark storage room the fastest she could.